iW9HK 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


GIFT  OF 


Mrs.  Domenico  Saudino 


v2.    \ 


- 

.  sic 


(r 


Jtavart 


C-imbtr  jculp. 


THE 


LIFB 


OP 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON, 


AUTHOR  OF  THE 


DECLARATION  OP  INDEPENDENCE, 


.AND 


THIRD  PRESIDENT  OF  THE    UNITED  STATES. 


li  Let  laurels,  drench'd  in  pure  Parnassian  dews, 
"  Reward  his  mem'ry,  dear  to  every  muse, 
"  Who,  with  a  courage  of  unshaken  root, 
"  In  honour's  field  advancing  his  firm  foot, 
"  Plants  it  upon  the  line  that  Justice  draws, 
"  And  will  prevail,  or  perish  in  her  cause." 


BY  WILLIAM  LINN. 


ITHACA : 

PRINTED  AND  PUBLISHED  BY  MACK  &  ANDRUS. 

1834. 


Entered  according  to  act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1834,  by 
MACK  &  ANDRUS,  in  the  office  of  the  Clerk  of  the  Northern 
District  of  the  state  of  New  York. 


TO 


SIMEON  DE  WITT,  ESO. 

. 

SURVEYOR    GENERAL    OF    THE    STATE    OF  NEW  YORK, 


This  volume  is  inscribed, 

as  a  testimonial  of  the  gratitude  and  respect  of  the  Compiler; 
accompanied  by  the  wish,  that  his  age  maybe  as  composed  and 
happy  as  his  past  life  has  been  arduous,  honourable,  and  useful. 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


THIS  work  is  a  compilation  exclusively ;  and  the  only  merit 
it  can  possibly  claim,  is  in  the  collection  and  arrangement  of 
the  materials,  and  in  the  authenticity  and  correctness  of  its 
authorities.  And  where  facts  and  truths  alone  are  sought,  this 
acknowledgment  cannot  diminish  the  value  of  the  production^ 
or  detract  from  its  usefulness.  Farther  than  what  the  writers 
quoted  afford,  neither  the  splendour  of  fancy,  nor  the  fascina- 
tion of  language,  is  to  be  expected  from  it;  its.  aim  has  been  a 
plain,  unvarnished  statement  of  the  prominent  incidents  in  the 
life  of  its  illustrious  subject ;  and  if  that  is  attained,  the  inten- 
tion of  the  publishers  is  answered.  The  selections  for  this  pur- 
pose have  oeen  made  from  various  authors ;  and  the  memoirs 
of  Mr.  Jefferson,  composed  by  himself,  and  prefixed  to  the  vol- 
umes of  his  correspondence,  has  been  the  text-book  by  which 
difficulties  and  discrepancies  have  been  obviated  or  reconciled. 
These  memoirs,  however,  comprise  but  little  of  his  lengthened 
and  eventful  life,  and  his  letters  have  enabled  me,  in  some 
measure,  to  supply  the  deficiency.  Neither  have  I  hesitated, 
in  many  instances,  to  employ  the  very  words  of  my  authorities  ; 
conscious  that  any  attempted  amendment  on  my  part,  would  not 
only  be  futile,  but,  by  misapplication  of  a  phrase,  might  perplex 
the  meaning.  On  this  account,  a  variety  of  style  will  be  percep- 
tible, but  not  having  a  tendency,  it  is  imagined,  to  throw  confu- 
sion in  the  facts  related,  or  shroud  expression  in  obscurity.  To 
the  "  American  Biography,"  more  than  any  other,  I  have  been 
indebted  for  date  and  incident. 

To  present  to  the  publick  a  candid  and  impartial  history  of 
the  life  of  THOMAS  JEFFERSON,  has  been  the  anxious  desire  of 
the  compiler,  though,  in  other  respects,  his  ability  may  have 
failed  in  the  performance.  This  he  hopes  he  has  done ;  and 
he  has  given  in  a  portable  and  economical  form,  what  was  be- 
fore contained  in,  or  appended  to,  books  voluminous  in  bulk  and 
extravagant  ia  price. 

"W.  L 


OF 

THOMAS  JEFFERSON. 

*  .  • 

CHAPTER  I. 

THE  LIFE  of  THOMAS  JEFFERSON,  author  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  President  of  the  United 
States,  and  one  of  the  most  prominent  actors  in  the 
stirring  scenes  of  the  revolution,  cannot,  we  presume, 
be  unacceptable  to  any  American  reader.  The  inci- 
dents of  his  distinguished  life,  his  talents,  the  exalted 
stations  which  he  filled,  his  intimate  connexion  with 
those  illustrious  men  whom  we  delight  to  honour,  and 
his  association  with  the  most  important  events  in  the 
revolutionary  struggle,  must  always  afford  him  a  con- 
spicuous place  in  the  history  of  our  country.  Shaken 
as  he  has  been  by  the  storms  of  the  time,  and  so  furious- 
ly assailed  by  political  opponents,  there  was  danger, 
while  they*  contemplated  nothing  beyond  the  downfall 
of  the  executive,  that  their  weapons  might  pass  through 
his  shield,  and  strike  into  the  bosom  of  their  country* 
yet  now,  when  the  fury  of  the  day  has  passed  over, 
candour  will  do  justice  to  his  talents,  appreciate  his 
merits,  and  render  gratitude  for  his  services.  The 
2 


O  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

clouds  are  rolling  off  from  the  darkened  landscape, 
and  the  excellencies  of  his  character  can  now  be  dis- 
tinguished on  the  horizon  in  all  their  native  brightness, 
It  has  been  remarked,  that  certain  stated  times  and 
periods  have  been  prolifick  of  great  men.  Nature 
seems  then  to  have  exerted  herself  with  a  more  than 
ordinary  effort,  and  to  have  poured  them  forth  with 
unusual  fertility.  But  at  no  time  or  period  did  any 
country  produce  greater  men,  or  those  better  qualified 
to  conduct  affairs  to  a  successful  issue,  than  at  the  com- 
mencement and  during  the  progress  of  our  combat  for 
independence.  The  commanders  were  ardent  and 
enterprising,  and  possessing  an  almost  intuitive  knowl- 
edge of  their  profession ;  our  counsellors  were  firm, 
prudent  and  sagacious ;  and  the  continental  Congress 
possessed  a  collective  body  of  wisdom  which  the  world 
has  seldom  witnessed.  The  people  themselves,  enthu- 
siastick  in  the  cause  of  liberty,  deeply  imbued  with  a 
detestation  of  tyranny,  and  with  all  their  wrongs  and 
remembrances  about  them,  were  brave  and  determined, 
unrepining  in  the  midst  of  hardships,  and  free  from 
cruelty  and  licentiousness.  With  such  instruments, 
under  the  direction  of  a  benignant  Providence,  the  re- 
sult was  glorious,  and  its  effects  and  consequences  have 
been  beneficially  felt  over  a  great  part  of  the  globe. 
"History,"  said  professor  Silliman  in  1820,  "presents 
no  struggle  for  liberty  which  has  in  it  more  of  the 
moral  sublime  than  that  of  the  American  revolution. 
It  has  of  late  years  been  too  much  forgotten  in  the  sharp 
contentions  of  party,  and  he  who  endeavours  to  with- 
draw the  publick  mind  from  these  debasing  conflicts, 
and  to  fix  it  on  the  grandeur  of  that  epoch,  which, 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  7 

magnificent  in  itself,  begins  now  to  wear  the  solemn 
livery  of  antiquity  as  it  is  viewed  through  the  deepen- 
ing twilight  of  almost  half  a  century,  certainly  per- 
forms a  meritorious  service,  and  can  scarcely  need  a 
justification."  But  if  a  subject  of  interest  when  con- 
templated in  this  view — if  to  the  philosopher  it  affords 
a  profound  and  gratifying  theory  in  his  annals  of  man — 
how  vastly  more  important,  and  what  a  matter  of  ex- 
ultation, must  it  be  to  those  who  reflect  that  it  was  their 
fathers  who  exhibited  this  noble  spectacle  to  the  world, 
and  that  the  rights  and  privileges  which  they  enjoy 
are  the  splendid  result  of  their  exertions !  Their  char- 
acters must  become  not  only  the  subjects  of  curiosity, 
but  their  names  of  enduring  gratitude,  and  the  events 
of  their  lives  not  only  the  theme  of  frequent  conversa- 
tion, but  familiar  as  household  terms.  It  is  under 
these  impressions  that  these  memoirs  are  presented  to 
the  publick  ;  the  memoirs  of  him  whose  name  is  one 
of  the  brightest  in  the  revolutionary  galaxy. 

Thomas  Jefferson  was  descended  from  a  family  who 
had  long  been  settled  in  Virginia,  the  province  of  his 
nativity.  His  ancestors,  according  to  a  late  biographer, 
had  emigrated  there  at  an  early  period ;  and  although 
bringing  with  them,  as  far  as  is  known,  no  fortune  be- 
yond that  zeal  and  enterprise  which  are  so  useful  and 
necessary  to  adventurers  in  a  new  and  unknown  coun- 
try, and  no  rank  beyond  a  name  which  was  free  from 
dishonour,  they  had  a  standing  in  the  community  high- 
ly respectable,  and  lived  in  circumstances  of  consider- 
able affluence.  "  The  tradition  in  my  father's  family," 
says  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  in  his  modest  and  in- 
teresting memoirs,  "was,  that  their  ancestor  came  to 


8  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

this  country  from  Wales,  and  from  near  the  mountain 
of  Snowden,  the  highest  in  Great  Britain.  I  noted 
once  a  case  from  Wales  in  the  law  reports,  where  a 
person  of  our  name  was  either  plaintiff  or  defendant, 
and  one  of  the  same  name  was  secretary  to  the  Virgin- 
ia Company.  These  are  the  only  instances  in  which 
I  have  met  with  the  name  in  that  country.  I  have 
found  it  in  our  early  records  ;  but  the  first  particular 
information  I  have  of  any  ancestor,  was  of  my  grand- 
father, who  lived  at  the  place  in  Chesterfield  called 
Ozborne's,  and  owned  the  lands  afterwards  the  glebe  of 
the  parish.  He  had  three  sons :  Thomas,  who  died 
young;  Field,  who  settled  on  the  waters  -of  Roanoke, 
and  left  numerous  descendants  ;  and  Petejr1  my  father, 
who  settled  on  the  lands  I  still  own,  called  Shadwell, 
adjoining  my  present  residence.  He  was  born  Feb- 
ruary 29,  1707-8,  and  mtermarried,  1739,  with  Jane 
Randolph,  of  thejjgfijrf  19,  daughter  of  Isliam  Ran- 
dolph, one  of  the  seven  sons  of  that  name  mul  family, 
settled  at 'Dungeness,  in  Goochland.  They  trace  their 
pedigree  far  back  in  England  and  Scotland,  to  which 
let  every  one  ascribe  the  faith  and  merit  he  chooses." 

Thomas  Jefferson  was  born  April  2,  old  style,  1743, 
at  Shadwell,  in  Albemarle  county,  Virginia,  and  was 
the  eldest  of  eight  children.  His  father,  though  his 
education  had  been  entirely  neglected  in  early  life^  yet, 
being  a  man  of  strong  mind  and  sound  judgement,  he, 
by  subsequent  study,  acquired  no  inconsiderable  knowl- 
edge and  information.  His  progress  must  have  been 
not  only  rapid  but  profound,  since  we  find  him  appoint- 
ed in  the  year  1747  one  of  the  commissioners  with 
Joshua  Fry,  Professor  of  Mathematicks  in  William  and 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  9 

Mary  College,  for  determining  the  division  line  between 
Virginia  and  North  Carolina  ;  an  appointment  no  less 
creditable  to  his  talents  than  his  integrity,  a  confidence 
in  the  latter  of  which  is  peculiarly  necessary  in  set- 
tling the  boundaries  between  jealous  and  independent 
territories.  After  this  service,  he  was  again  employed 
with  the  same  gentleman  to  make  a  map  of  Virginia, 
the  first  which  had  ever  been  made,  that  of  Captain 
Smith  being  indebted  more  to  fancy  and  conjecture 
than  to  fact.  The  father  of  Thomas  Jefferson  died 
August  17,  1757,  leaving  a  widow,  who  lived  until 
1776,  and  six  daughters  and  two  sons.  To  the  young- 
est son  he  left  his  estate  on  James  River ;  to  the  eldest, 
with  whose  life  we  are  engaged,  the  lands  on  which 
he  was  born,  and  lived,  and  died. 

Young  Jefferson  was  placed  at  an  English  school  at 
the  age  of  five  years  ;  and  at  a  Latin  one  at  the  age  of 
nine,  where  he  continued  until  the  death  of  his  father. 
When  that  event  happened,  he  was  placed  under  the 
tuition  of  the  Reverend  Mr.  Maury,  whom  he  represents 
as  a  "  correct  classical  scholar,"  and  with  whom  he  re- 
mained two  years;  when  in  the  spring  of  1760  he  en- 
tered William  and  Mary  College,  and  continued  there 
the  space  of  two  years  more.  At  the  latter  place  it 
was  his  great  good  fortune,  and  what  he  considered  as 
fixing  the  destinies  of  his  life,  that  Doctor  William 
Small,  of  Scotland,  was  then  Professor  of  Mathemat- 
icks  in  the  institution;  "a man,"  says  his  pupil,  "pro- 
found in  most  of  the  useful  branches  of  science,  with 
a  happy  talent  of  communication,  of  correct  and  gen- 
tlemanly manners,  and  with  an  enlarged  and  liberal 
mind."  An  attachment  was  soon  formed  between  these  m 
2* 


10  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

congenial  spirits,  and  they  became  daily  and  insepara- 
ble companions.  From  the  conversations  of  this  learn- 
ed man,  and  true  friend,  Jefferson  confesses  that  he  first 
imbibed  his  views  of  the  expansion  of  science,  and  of 
the  system  of  things  in  which  we  are  placed. 

Doctor  Small  returned  to  Europe  in  1762,  having 
first  occupied  the  philosophical  chair  at  the  College, 
and  filled  up  the  measure  of  goodness  to  his  young- 
friend  by  procuring  for  him  a  reception  as  a  student  at 
law  under  the  direction  of  the  celebrated  George 
Wythe,  the  most  distinguished  man  of  his  age,  one  of 
the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and 
afterwards  Chancellor  of  the  state  of  Virginia.  With 
this  gentleman  he  was  also  united  not  merely  by  the 
ties  of  professional  connexion,  but  by  a  congeniality  of 
feeling  and  similarity  of  views  alike  honourable  to 
them  both;  the  friendship  formed  in  youth  was  cement- 
ed and  strengthened  by  age,  and  when  the  venerable 
preceptor  closed  his  life  in  1806,  he  bequeathed  his  li- 
brary and  philosophical  apparatus  to  a  pupil  and  friend 
who  had  already  proved  himself  worthy  of  his  instruc- 
tion and  regard. 

In  1767  he  was  introduced  to  the  practice  of  the  law 
at  the  bar  of  the  General  Court  of  the  colony,  and  at 
which  he  continued  until  the  revolution.  His  legal 
career  was  not  only  pursued  with  zeal,  but  attended 
with  overflowing  success.  In  the  short  period  he  de- 
voted himself  to  it,  he  acquired  an  enviable  reputation : 
and  a  monument  of  his  professional  labour  and  legal 
research  still  exists  in  a  volume  of  reports  of  adjudged 
cases  in  the  supreme  courts  of  Virginia,  compiled  and 
digested  amid  the  engagements  of  active  occupation. 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  11 

But  his  energy  and  talents  were  demanded  by  his 
fellow  citizens  for  publick  life,  and  his  country  would 
not  permit  him  to  remain  in  a  private  station,  or  attend 
to  ordinary  affairs;  their  hopes  and  desires  already 
pointed  to  him,  and  their  interests  directed  his  aim  to 
higher  objects  and  more  extensive  usefulness.  As  early 
as  the  year  1769  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  pro- 
vincial legislature  from  the  county  where  he  resided, 
and  continued  a  member  of  that  body  until  it  was  clos- 
ed by  the  revolution.  In  consequence,  he  became  as- 
sociated with  men  who  will  always  stand  in  bold  relief 
among  the  first,  the  most  ardent,  and  most  determined 
champions  of  our  rights. 

While  here,  he  made  one  strenuous  but  fruitless  ef- 
fort for  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves :  so  early  had  a 
love  of  liberty  and  a  detestation  of  tyranny  been  im- 
printed on  his  mind.  His  failure  is  ascribed  to  the 
effect  of  the  regal  government,  from  which  nothing 
liberal,  or  that  innovated  on  established  errour,  could 
expect  success.  The  minds  of  the  generality  were, 
fettered  and  circumscribed  within  narrow  limits  by  an 
habitual  belief  that  it  was  a  duty  to  be  subordinate  to 
the  mother  country  in  all  matters  of  government,  to 
direct  the  colonial  labours  in  subserviance  to  her  inter- 
ests, and  even  to  observe  a  bigoted  intolerance  for  all 
religions  but  her  own.  "  The  difficulties  with  our 
representatives,"  he  writes,  "  were  of  habit  and  despair, 
not  of  reflection  and  conviction."  And  thus  this  noble 
attempt  was  considered  as  the  attempt  of  rashness,  and 
met  the  fate  of  folly.  And  that  which  has  since  im- 
mortalized its  authors  and  promoters,  was  first  con- 
ceived by  the  mind  and  enforced  by  the  eloquence  of 


12  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

Jefferson,  and  adds  no  fluttering  pinion  to  his  deathless 
renown. 

Ever  since  the  year  1763,  a  spirit  of  opposition  to 
the  British  government  had  been  gradually  arising  in 
the  province  of  Virginia,  and  this  spirit  was  rapidly  in- 
creasing, owing  to  the  arbitrary  measures  of  the  mother 
country,  which  seemed  to  be  the  result  no  less  of  mad- 
ness than  determined  oppression.     The  attachment  to 
England  was  great  in  all  the  colonies,  and  in  Virginia 
it  was  more  than  usually  strong;  many  of  the  princi- 
pal families,  according  to  a  popular  writer,  were  con- 
nected with  it  by  the  closest  ties  of  consanguinity ;  the 
young  men  of  talent  were  sent  thither  to  complete  their 
education  in  its  colleges ;  and  by  many,  and  those  not 
the  least  patriotick,  it  was  fondly  looked  to  as  their 
home.     To  sever  so  intimate  a  connexion  could  not  be 
an  undertaking  of  ordinary  facility ;  yet  such  was  the 
rash  course  pursued  by  the  British  ministry,  that  a  very 
brief  space  was  sufficient  to   dissolve  in  every  breast 
that  glowed  with  national  feeling,  those  ties  which  had 
been  formed  by  blood,  by  time,  and  by  policy.     A  very 
short  experience  and  a  slight  converse  with  the  politi- 
cal history  of  the  world  were  sufficient  to  convince  ev- 
ery mind  that  there  were  no  hazards  too  great  to  be  en- 
countered for  the  establishment  of  institutions  which 
would  secure  the  country  from  a  repetition  of  insults 
that  could  only  end  in  abject   slavery.     It  cannot  be 
doubted  that  Mr.  Jefferson  was  among  the  first  to  per- 
ceive and  suggest  the  only  course  that  could  be  adopted. 
The  convictions  of  his  mind,  and  ardour  of  his  feelings, 
may,  in  some  measure,  be  judged,  from  his  recollections 
of  the  powerful  efforts  of  the  celebrated  Patrick  Henry, 


LIFE    OF   JEFFERSON.  13 

end  of  which  he  was  a  witness.  "  When  the  famous  re- 
solutions of  1765  against  the  stamp  act  were  proposed, 
I  was  yet  a  student  of  law  in  Williamsburgh.  I  attend- 
ed the  debate,  however,  at  the  door  of  the  lobby  of  the 
House  of  Burgesses,  and  heard  the  splendid  display  of 
Mr.  Henry's  talents  as  a  popular  orator.  They  were 
great  indeed ;  such  as  I  never  heard  from  any  other 
man.  He  appeared  to  me  to  speak  as  Homer  wrote." 
In  Mr.  Jefferson's  opinion,  Henry,  one  of  the  most  em- 
inent, but  at  the  same  time  the  most  indolent  of  men, 
was  the  first  who  gave  impetus  to  the  ball  of  the  revo- 
lution in  the  province  of  Virginia.  Such  are  the  effects 
of  oratorial  eloquence  I  Its  power  is  almost  irresisti- 
ble :  it  penetrates,  says  one  who  seems  to  have  been  un- 
der the  fascination  of  its  influence,  into  the  inmost  re- 
cesses of  the  soul.  It  is  able  to  excite  or  to  calm  the 
passions  of  men  at  will ;  to  drive  the  multitude  forward 
to  acts  of  rashness,  or  to  say  to  the  contending  passions, 
"  Peace,  be  still."  It  changes  the  whole  current  of  our 
ideas  concerning  the  nature  and  importance  of  objects, 
and  of  our  obligations  and  advantages  respecting  them. , 
It  rouses  from  pernicious  indolence,  and  renders  the 
sentiments  and  dispositions  already  formed  most  influ- 
ential. In  a  word,  it  has  made  of  the  human  species 
both  angels  and  monsters ;  it  has  animated  to  the  most 
noble  and  generous  exertions,  and  it  has  impelled  to 
deeds  of  horrour. 

It  is  in  allusion  to  the  events  of  the- same  period  that 
Mr.  Jefferson  writes :  "  The  colonies  were  taxed  inter- 
nally and  externally ;  their  essential  interests  sacrificed 
to  individuals  in  Great  Britain ;  their  legislatures  sus- 
pended; charters  annulled;  trials  by  juries  taken 


14  LIFE    OF   JEFFERSOFT. 

away  j  their  persons  subjected  to  transportation  across 
the  Atlantick,  and  to  trial  by  foreign  judicatories ;  their 
supplications  for  redress  thought  beneath  answer; 
themselves  published  as  cowards  in  the  councils  of  their 
mother  country,  and  courts  of  Europe;  armed  troops 
sent  amongst  them  to  enforce  submission  to  these  violen- 
ces ;  and  actual  hostilities  commenced  against  them. 
No  alternative  was  presented  but  resistance  or  uncon- 
ditional submission.  Between  these,  there  could  be  no 
hesitation.  They  closed  in  an  appeal  to  arms." 

In  1769,  shortly  after  the  election  of  Mr.  Jefferson 
to  the  provincial  legislature,  these  discontents  arrived 
at  their  crisis.  In  May  of  that  year,  a  meeting  of  the 
General  Assembly  was  called  by  the  Governour,  Lord 
Botetourt.  To  that  meeting  was  made  known  the  joint 
resolutions  and  address  of  the  British  Lords  and  Com- 
mons of  1768-9,  on  the  proceedings  in  Massachusetts, 
Counter  resolutions,  and  an  address  to  the  King,  by 
the  House  of  Burgesses,  were  agreed  to  with  little  op- 
position ;  and  a  spirit  manifestly  displayed  itself  of  con- 
sidering the  cause  of  Massachusetts  as  a  common  one. 
The  Governour  dissolved  the  General  Assembly  in  con- 
sequence of  the  sympathy  which  was  thus  exhibited  by 
a  majority  of  its  members;  but  they  met  the  next  day 
in  the  publick  room  of  the  Raleigh  Tavern,  formed 
themselves  into  a  convention,  drew  up  articles  of  associ- 
ation against  the  use  of  any  merchandise  from  Great 
Britain,  and  signed  and  recommended  Ihem  to  the  peo- 
ple. They  then  repaired  to  their  respective  counties  j 
and  were  all  re-elected  except  those  few  who  had  declin- 
ed assenting  to  their  proceedings. 

On  the  first  of  January,  1772,  Mr.  Jefferson  married 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  15 

the  daughter  of  Mr,  John  Wayles  of  Virginia,  an  alli- 
ance by  which  he  at  once  gained  an  accession  of 
strength  and  credit,  and  received,  in  the  intervals  of 
publick  business,  that  domestick  happiness  he  was  so 
well  fitted  to  partake  and  enjoy.  Its  duration,  however, 
was  but  short ;  in  little  more  than  ten  years,  death  de- 
prived him  of  his  wife,  and  left  him  the  sole  guardian 
of  two  infant  daughters  ;  to  whose  education  he  devo- 
ted himself  with  a  constancy  and  zeal,  which  might,  in 
some  measure,  compensate  for  the  want  of  a  mother's 
care  and  instruction,  Mr.  Wayles  was  an  eminent 
lawyer  of  the  province,  and  having  by  his  great  industry, 
punctuality,  and  practical  readiness,  acquired  a  hand- 
some fortune,  he  died  in  May,  177 3,  leaving  three  daugh- 
ters :  the  portion  which  came  on  that  event  to  Mrs.  Jef- 
ferson was  about  equal  to  the  patrimony  of  her  husband, 
and  consequently  doubled  the  ease  of  their  circum- 
stances. 

After  the  dissolution  of  the  Virginia  legislature  in 
1769,  nothing  of  particular  excitement  in  the  country 
occurred  for  a  considerable  length  of  time ;  the  nation 
appeared  to  have  fallen  into  an  apathy  or  insensibility 
to  their  situation ;  although  the  duty  on  tea  was  not  yet 
repealed,  and  the  declaratory  act  of  a  right  in  the  Bri- 
tish parliament  to  bind  them  by  their  laws  in  all  cases, 
was  still  supended  over  them.  But  they  at  length 
aroused  from  their  stupor.  A  court  of  inquiry  held  in 
Rhode  Island  in  1762,  with  a  power  to  send  persons  to 
England  to  be  tried  for  offences  committed  here,  was 
thought  to  have  aimed  a  deadly  stab  at  the  most  sacred 
rights  of  the  citizen,  and  as  demanding  the  attention  of 
the  legislature  of  Virginia.  The  subject  was  taken. 


16  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

up  and  considered  a,t  the  spring  session  of  1773.  On 
this  occasion,  Mr.  Jefferson  associated  himself  with 
several  of  the  boldest  and  most  active  of  his  com- 
panions in  the  house,  ("not  thinking,"  as  he  says 
himself,  "the  old  and  leading  members  up  to  the 
point  of  forwardness  and  zeal  which  the  times  re- 
quired,") and  with  them  formed  the  system  of  Com- 
mittees of  Correspondence,  in  a  private  room,  in  the 
same  Raleigh  Tavern.  They  were  sensible  that  the 
most  urgent  of  all  measures  was  that  of  coming  to  an 
understanding  with  all  the  other  colonies,  to  consider 
the  British  claims  as  a  common  cause  to  all,  and  to  pro- 
duce a  unity  of  action;  and  for  this  purpose,  that  a 
committee  of  correspondence  in  each  colony  would  be 
the  best  instrument  for  intercommunication,  and  that 
their  first  measure  would  probably  be  to  propose  a  meet- 
ing of  deputies  from  every  colony,  at  some  central  place, 
who  should  be  charged  with  the  direction  of  the  meas- 
ures which  should  be  taken  by  all.  In  furtherance  of 
these  views,  the  following  resolutions  were  drawn  up, 
and  probably  proceeded  from  his  pen: 

"  Whereas  the  minds  of  his  majesty's  faithful  subjects 
in  this  colony  have  been  much  disturbed  by  various  ru- 
mours and  reports  of  proceedings  tending  to  deprive 
them  of  their  ancient  legal  and  constitutional  rights: 

"And  whereas  the  affairs  of  this  colony  are  frequent- 
ly connected  with  those  of  Great  Britain,  as  well  as  the 
neighbouring  colonies,  which  renders  a  communication 
of  sentiments  necessary;  in  order  therefore  to  remove 
the  uneasiness  and  to  quiet  the  minds  of  the  people,  as 
well  as  for  the  other  good  purposes  above  mentioned : 

"  Be  it  resolved,  that  a  standing  committee  of  corres- 


LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON.  17 

pondence  and  inquiry  be  appointed,  to  consist  of  eleven 
persons,  to  wit:  the  Honourable  Peyton  Randolph,  Esq. 
Robert  C.  Nicholas,  Richard  Bland,  Richard  H.  Lee, 
Benjamin  Harrison,  Edmund  Pendleton,  Patrick  Hen- 
ry, Dudley  Digges,  Dabney  Carr,  Archibald  Gary, 
and  Thomas  Jefferson,  Esquires ;  any  six  of  whom  to 
be  a  committee,  whose  business  it  shall  be  to  obtain  the 
most  early  and  authentick  intelligence  of  all  such  acts 
and  resolutions  of  the  British  parliament,  or  proceedings 
of  administration,  as  may  relate  to  or  affect  the  British 
colonies  in  America ;  and  to  keep  up  and  maintain  a 
correspondence  and  communication  with  our  sister  co- 
lonies respecting  those  important  considerations ;  and 
the  result  of  such  their  proceedings,  from  time  to  time, 
to  lay  before  this  house. 

"  Resolved,  that  it  be  an  instruction  to  the  said  com- 
mittee, that  they  do,  without  delay,  inform  themselves 
particularly  of  the  principles  and  authority  on  which 
was  constituted  a  Court  of  Inquiry  said  to  have  been 
lately  held  in  Rhode  Island,  with  powers  to  transport 
persons  accused  of  offences  committed  in  America  to 
places  beyond  the  seas  to  be  tried. 

"  The  said  resolutions  being  severally  read  a  second 
time,  were,  upon  the  question  severally  put  thereupon, 
agreed  to  by  the  house  nemine  contradicente. 

"  Resolved,  that  the  Speaker  of  this  house  do  trans- 
mit to  the  Speakers  of  the  different  Assemblies  of  the 
British  colonies  on  this  continent,  copies  of  the  said 
resolutions,  and  desire  that  they  will  lay  them  before 
their  respective  Assemblies,  and  request  them  to  ap- 
point some  person  or  persons  of  their  respective  bodies 
3 


18  LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON. 

to  communicate  from  time  to  time  with  the  said  com- 
mittee." 

The  consulting  members  proposed  to  Mr.  Jefferson 
to  move  these  resolutions  :  but  he  urged  that  it  should 
be  done  by  Mr.  Carr,  his  friend  and  brother-in-law, 
then  a  new  member,  and  to  whom  he  wished  an  oppor- 
tunity should  be  given  of  making  known  to  the  house 
his  great  worth  and  talents.  It  was  so  agreed :  he 
moved  them,  they  were  adopted  without  a  dissenting 
voice,  and  a  committee  of  correspondence  appointed,  of 
whom  Peyton  Randolph,  the  Speaker,  was  chairman. 
The  Governour  (then  Lord  Dunmore)  immediately 
dissolved  the  house  :  but  the  committee  met  next  day, 
prepared  a  circular  letter  to  the  Speakers  of  the  other 
cdlonies,  inclosing  to  each  a  copy  of  the  resolutions, 
and  left  it  in  charge  with  their  chairman  to  forward 
them  by  expresses. 

We  would  step  aside  one  moment,  for  the  purpose  of 
introducing  Mr.  Wirt's  description  of  the  mind  and 
manners  of  the  gentleman  who  first  presented  these  res- 
olutions to  the  house.  "In  supporting  these  resolu- 
tions," says  he,  "  Mr.  Carr  made  his  debut,  and  a  noble 
one  it  is  said  to  have  been.  This  gentleman,  by  pro- 
fession a  lawyer,  had  recently  commenced  his  practice 
at  the  same  bars  with  Patrick  Henry;  and  although 
he  had  not  yet  reached  the  meridian  of  life,  he  was  con- 
sidered by  far  the  most  formidable  rival  in  forensick  el- 
oquence that  Mr.  Henry  had  ever  yet  had  to  encounter. 
He  had  the  advantage  of  a  person  at  once  dignified  and 
engaging,  and  the  manner  and  action  of  an  accom- 
plished gentleman.  His  education  was  a  finished  one, 
his  mind  trained  to  correct  thinking,  his  conceptions 


LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON,  19 

quick,  and  clear,  and  strong ;  he  reasoned  with  great 
cogency,  and  had  an  imagination  which  enlightened 
beautifully,  without  interrupting  or  diverting  the  course 
of  his  argument.  His  voice  was  finely  toned  ;  his  feel- 
ings acute ;  his  style  free,  and  rich,  and  various  ;  his 
devotion  to  the  cause  of  liberty  verging  on  enthusiasm ; 
and  his  spirit  firm  and  undaunted,  beyond  the  possibili- 
ty of  being  shaken.  With  what  delight  the  House  of 
Burgesses  hailed  this  new  champion,  and  felicitated 
themselves  on  such  an  accession  to  their  cause,  it  is  easy 
to  imagine.  But  what  are  the  hopes  and  expectations 
of  mortals  ?  In  two  months  from  the  time  at  which 
this  gentleman  stood  before  the  House  of  Burgesses,  in 
all  the  pride  of  health,  and  genius,  and  eloquence,  he 
was  no  more !  Lost  to  his  friends  and  his  country, 
and  disappointed  of  standing  in  that  noble  triumph 
which  awaited  the  illustrious  band  ojf  his  compatriots." 
We  have  similar  testimony  from  a  different  pen.  "  I 
well  remember,"  says  an  eyewitness,  "the  pleasure 
expressed  in  the  countenances  and  conversation  of  the 
members  generally  in  this  debut  of  Mr.  Carr,  and  the 
hopes  they  conceived,  as  well  from  the  talents  as  the 
patriotism  it  manifested.  But  he  died  within  two 
months  after,  and  in  him  we  lost  a  powerful  fellow  la- 
bourer. His  character  was  of  a  high  order,  a  spotless 
integrity,  sound  judgement,  handsome  imagination,  en- 
riched by  education  and  reading ;  quick  and  clear  in 
his  conceptions ;  of  correct  and  ready  elocution ;  im- 
pressing every  hearer  with  the  sincerity  of  the  heart 
from  which  it  flowed.  His  firmness  was  inflexible  in 
whatever  he  thought  right ;  but  when  no  moral  princi- 
ple was  in  the  way,  never  had  man  more  of  the  milk 


20  LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON. 

of  human  kindness,  of  indulgence,  of  softness,  of  pleas- 
antry in  conversation  and  conduct.  The  number  of 
his  friends,  and  the  warmth  of  their  affections,  were 
proofs  of  his  worth,  and  their  estimate  of  it."  This 
was  the  first  and  only  speech  of  Mr.  Carr  in  the  House 
of  Representatives.  He  died  the  16th  of  May,  1773, 
in  the  thirtieth  year  of  his  age.  . 

This  system  of  corresponding  committees  between 
the  legislatures  of  the  different  colonies,  which  was 
thus  adopted  as  the  best  instrument  for  communication 
between  the  respective  colonies,  and  by  which  they 
might  be  brought  to  a  mutual  understanding  and  a  uni- 
ty of  action,  has  since  been  asserted  to  have  arisen 
in  Massachusetts,  and  Judge  Marshall,  in  his  Life  of 
Washington,  has  fallen  into  the  errour.  But  Mr.  Jef- 
ferson, and  no  doubt  correctly,  asserts  the  contrary. 
He  imagines  the  mistake  to  have  arisen  from  confound- 
ing together  two  distinct  committees :  adding,  "  Thus 
in  Massachusetts  there  were  two  committees  of  cor- 
respondence, one  chosen  by  the  people,  the  other  ap- 
pointed by  the  House  of  Assembly ;  in  the  former,  Mas- 
sachusetts preceded  Virginia ;  in  the  latter,  Virginia 
preceded  Massachusetts.  To  the  origination  of  com- 
mittees for  the  interiour  correspondence  between  the 
counties  and  towns  of  a  state,  I  know  of  no  claim  on 
the  part  of  Virginia,  and  certainly  none  was  ever 
made  by  myself."  And  the  letter  of  Samuel  A.  Wells, 
Esquire,  to  Mr.  Jefferson,  and  the  answer  of  the  latter 
of  May  12th,  1829,  show  conclusively  that  Massachu- 
setts did  not  adopt  the  measure,  but  on  receipt  of  the? 
proposition  from  Virginia,  and  which  was  delivered  at 
their  next  session. 


LIFE    OF   JEFFERSON.  21 

On  the  twelfth  of  March,  1773,  Mr.  Jefferson  was 
chosen  a  member  of  the  first  committee  of  correspond- 
ence established  by  the  colonial  legislatures,  the  act 
already  alluded  to,  as  the  most  important  of  the  revo- 
lution in  preparing  the  way  for  that  union  of  sentiment 
and  action  from  whence  arose  the  first  effective  resist- 
ance, and  on  which  depended  the  successful  progress 
and  final  triumph  of  the  cause. 

The  year  1774  found  Mr.  Jefferson  still  actively  en- 
gaged in  his  duties  as  a  member  of  the  legislature  of 
Virginia.  The  passage  by  Parliament  of  the  Boston 
Port  Bill,  by  which  that  port  was  to  be  shut  up  on  the 
first  of  June,  1774,  was  the  next  event  which  aroused 
the  indignation  and  excited  the  sympathies  of  the 
house.  It  arrived  while  they  were  in  session  in  the 
spring  of  1774.  It  was  at  this  crisis  that  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son wrote,  and  the  members,  though  not  then  adopting 
as  resolutions,  afterwards  published  his  "Summary 
View  of  the  Rights  of  British  America;"  and  in  which 
he  maintained  what  was  then  thought  by  many  a  bold 
position,  but  which  he  considered  as  the  only  orthodox 
and  tenable  one :  that  the  relation  between  Great  Brit- 
ain and  the  colonies  was  exactly  the  same  as  that  of 
England  and  Scotland,  after  the  accession  of  James, 
and  until  the  union,  and  the  same  as  her  present  rela- 
tion with  Hanover,  having  the  same  executive  chief, 
but  no  other  necessary  political  connexion ;  and  that 
our  emigration  from  England  to  this  country  gave  her 
no  more  rights  over  us,  than  the  emigration  of  the 
Danes  and  Saxons  gave  to  the  authorities  of  the  mother 
country  over  England. 

"  In  this  doctrine,  however,"  says  he,  "  I  had  nerei 
3* 


22  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

been  able  to  get  any  one  to  agree  with  me  but  Mr. 
Wythe.  He  coincided  in  it  from  the  first  dawn  of  the 
question,  What  was  the  political  relation  between  us 
and  England?  Our  other  patriots,  Randolph,  the 
Lees,  Nicholas  and  Pendleton,  stopped  at  the  half-way 
house  of  John  Dickinson,  who  admitted  that  England 
had  a  right  to  regulate  our  commerce  and  to  lay  duties 
on  it  for  the  purpose  of  regulation,  but  not  of  raising  rev- 
enue. But  for  this  ground  there  was  no  foundation  in 
compact  in  any  acknowledged  principles  of  coloniza- 
tion, nor  in  reason  :  expatriation  being  a  national  right, 
and  acted  on  as  such  by  all  nations,  in  all  ages." 

This  pamphlet  is  addressed  to  the  king,  as  the  chief 
officer  of  the  people,  appointed  indeed  by  the  laws,  but 
circumscribed  by  definitive  power,  to  carry  into  effect 
that  institution  of  government  erected  by  themselves 
for  their  use  and  benefit,  and  consequently  subject  to 
their  superintendence.  He  reminded  him  that  our  an- 
cestors had  been  British  freemen ;  that  they  had  ac- 
quired their  settlements  here  at  their  own  expense  and 
blood ;  that  it  was  for  themselves  they  fought,  for  them- 
selves they  conquered ;  and  for  themselves  alone  they 
had  a  right  to  hold.  That  they  had  indeed  thought 
proper  to  adopt  the  same  system  of  laws  under  which 
they  had  hitherto  lived,  and  to  unite  themselves  under 
a  common  sovereign ;  but  that  no  act  of  theirs  had  ever 
given  a  title  to  that  authority,  which  the  British  par- 
liament arrogated;  that  the  crown  had  unjustly  com- 
menced its  encroachments,  by  distributing  the  settle- 
ments among  its  favourites,  and  the  followers  of  its  for- 
tunes ;  that  it  then  proceeded  to  abridge  the  free  trade 
which  the  colonies  possessed  as  of  natural  right  with  all 


LIFE    OF   JEFFERSON.  23 

parts  of  the  world;  and  that  afterwards  offices  were  es- 
tablished of  little  use  but  to  accommodate  the  ministers 
and  sycophants  of  the  crown.  That  during  the  reign  of 
the  sovereign  whom  he  immediately  addressed,  the  vi- 
olation of  rights  had  increased  in  rapid  and  bold  suc- 
cession ;  being  no  longer  single  acts  of  tyranny,  that 
might  be  ascribed  to  the  accidental  opinion  of  a  day; 
but  a  series  of  oppressions  pursued  so  unalterably 
through  every  change  of  ministers,  as  to  prove  too  plain- 
ly a  deliberate  and  systematical  plan  of  reducing  the 
colonies  to  slavery.  He  next  proceeds,  in  a  style  of  the 
boldest  invective,  to  point  out  the  several  acts  by  which 
this  plan  has  been  enforced,  and  enters  against  them  a 
solemn  and  determined  protest.  He  then  considers  the 
conduct  of  the  king  as  holding  an  executive  authority 
in  the  colonies,  and  points  out,  without  hesitation,  his 
deviation  from  the  line  of  duty ;  he  asserts  that  by  the 
unjust  exercise  of  his  negative  power,  he  had  rejected 
laws  of  the  most  salutary  tendency ;  that  he  had  defeat- 
ed repeated  attempts  to  stop  the  slave  trade  and  abol- 
ish tyranny ;  thus  preferring  the  immediate  advantages 
of  a  few  African  corsairs,  to  the  lasting  interests  of 
America,  and  to  the  rights  of  human  nature,  deeply 
wounded- by  this  infamous  practice.  That,  inattentive 
to  the  necessities  of  his  people,  he  had  neglected  for 
years  the  laws  which  were  sent  for  his  inspection ;  and 
that,  assuming  a  power,  for  advising  the  exercise  of 
which,  the  English  judges,  in  a  former  reign,  had 
suffered  death  as  traitors  to  their  country,  he  had  dissol- 
ved the  representative  assemblies,  and  refused  to  call 
others.  That  to  enforce  these,  and  other  arbitrary 
measures,  he  had  from  time  to  time  sent  over  large 


24  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

bodies  of  armed  men,  not  made  up  of  the  people  here, 
nor  raised  by  the  authority  of  their  laws.  That  to  ren- 
der these  proceedings  still  more  criminal,  instead  of 
subjecting  the  military  to  the  civil  powers,  he  had 
expressly  made  the  latter  subordinate  to  the  former. 
That  these  grievances  were  thus  laid  before  their 
sovereign,  with  that  freedom  of  language  and  senti- 
ment which  became  a  free  people,  whom  flattery  would 
ill  beseem,  when  asserting  the  rights  of  human  nature. 

In  all  this  we  perceive  the  germe  of  that  national 
declaration,  which  so  shortly  succeeded  it ;  many  of 
the  same  bold  truths,  and  in  the  same  bold  language, 

In  these  sentiments,  however,  bold  as  they  were,  his 
political  associates  joined  with  him ;  they  considered 
those  acts  of  oppression  directed  against  the  colonies 
of  New  England,  acts  in  which  all  were  concerned, 
and  an  attack  on  the  liberties  and  immunities  of  every 
other  province.  They  accordingly  resolved,  that  the 
first  day  of  June,  the  day  on  which  the  Boston  Port 
Bill  was  to  go  into  operation,  should  be  set  apart  by 
the  members  as  a  day  of  fasting,  humiliation  and 
prayer,  "  devoutly  to  implore  the  divine  interposition 
for  averting  the  heavy  calamities  which  threatened 
destruction  to  their  civil  rights,  and  the  evils  of  a  civil 
war;  and  to  give  them  one  heart  and  one  mind,  to 
oppose  by  all  just  and  proper  means  every  injury  to 
American  rights." 

Lord  Dunmore,  the  royal  Governour  of  the  province, 
tould  not  be  otherwise  than  highly  exasperated  at  such 
proceedings.  Mr.  Jefferson,  who  had  boldly  avowed 
himself  the  author  of  the  obnoxious  pamphlet,  was 
threatened  with  a  prosecution  by  him  for  high  treasun  j 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  25 

and  the  House  of  Burgesses  was  immediately  dissolved 
after  their  daring  publication.  Notwithstanding  these 
measures,  the  members  met  in  their  private  capacities, 
and  mutually  signed  a  spirited  publication,  setting  forth 
the  unjust  conduct  of  the  Governour,  who  had  left  them 
this,  their  only  method,  to  point  out  to  their  countrymen 
the  measures  they  deemed  the  best  calculated  to  secure 
their  liberties  from  destruction  by  the  arbitrary  hand 
of  power.  They  told  them  that  they  could  no  longer 
resist  the  conviction,  that  a  determined  system  had  been 
formed  to  reduce  the  inhabitants  of  British  America  to 
slavery,  by  subjecting  them  to  taxation  without  their 
consent,  by  closing  the  port  of  Boston,  and  raising  a 
revenue  on  tea.  They  therefore  strongly  recommend- 
ed a  closer  alliance  with  the  sister  colonies,  the  forma- 
tion of  committees  of  correspondence,  and  the  annual 
meeting  of  a  General  Congress  ;  and  earnestly  hoping 
that  a  persistance  in  these  principles  would  not  compel 
them  to  adopt  measures  of  a  more  decisive  character. 

The  pamphlet  having  found  its  way  to  England,  it 
was  taken  up  by  the  opposition,  and,  with  a  few  inter- 
polations by  the  celebrated  Edmund  Burke,  passed 
through  several  editions.  It  procured  for  its  author 
considerable  reputation,  and  likewise  the  dangerous 
honour  of  having  his  name  placed  on  a  list  of  proscrip- 
tions in  a  bill  of  attainder,  which  was  commenced  in 
one  of  the  houses  of  parliament,  but  was  speedily  sup- 
pressed. In  the  same  bill  the  names  of  Hancock,  the 
two  Adamses,  Peyton  Randolph,  and  Patrick  Henry, 
were  inserted. 

We  are  now  rapidly  approaching  the  most  important 


26  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

event  in  the  life  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  and  in  the  history  of 
his  country. 

The  year  1775  opened,  in  England,  with  strenuous 
attempts  by  the  friends,  and  apparent  ones  by  the  ene- 
mies of  the  colonies,  to  effect  a  reconciliation.  The 
certain  intelligence  which  had  been  received  of  the 
transactions  of  Congress,  and  the  astonishing  concord 
which  prevailed  in  America,  made  the  ministers  loath 
to  embrace  extreme  counsels,  and  inclined  to  relax 
somewhat  of  their  rigour,  and  to  leave  an  opening  for 
accommodation.  Lord  North  even  intimated  to  the 
American  merchants  then  in  London,  that  i'f  they  pre- 
sented petitions,  they  should  meet  attention.  But  in 
the  midst  of  these  glimmerings  of  peace,  the  news  ar- 
rived of  the  schism  of  New  York ;  an  event  of  great 
moment  in  itself,  and  promising  consequences  still  more 
important.  The  minister  felt  his  pride  revive:  he 
would  no  longer  hear  of  petitions  or  accommodation. 
Things  turned  anew  to  civil  war  and  strife.  All  the 
papers  relating  to  the  affairs  of  America,  were  laid  be- 
fore the  two  houses.  The  great  Chatham,  perceiving 
the  obstinacy  of  the  ministers  in  their  resolution  to 
persist  in  the  course  of  measures  they  had  adopted,  and 
fearing  that  it  might  result  in  the  most  disastrous  ef- 
fects, pronounced  a  long  and  most  extremely  eloquent 
discourse  in  favour  of  the  colonies,  and  was  heard 
with  solemn  and  rapt  attention. 

After  having  repulsed  with  a  sort  of  disdain  the  peti- 
tions of  the  colonies,  and  those  presented  in  their  favour 
by  the  islands  of  the  West  Indies,  and  even  by  Eng- 
land herself;  and  after  having  rejected  all  the  counsels 
of  the  party  in  opposition,  the  ministers  unveiled 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  27 

their  schemes,  and  announced  in  the  presence  of  the 
two  houses  the  measures  they  intended  to  pursue,  in  or- 
der to  reduce  the  colonies  to  subjection. 

They  pronounced  that  the  province  of  Massachu- 
setts was  found  in  a  state  of  rebellion ;  and  it  was 
proposed  that  in  the  address  of  the  king  it  should  be 
declared  that  rebellion  existed  in  the  province  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, and  that  it  was  supported  and  fomented  by 
illegal'  combinations  and  criminal  compacts  with  the 
other  colonies,  to  the  great  detriment  of  many  subjects 
of  his  majesty.  This  proposition  of  the  ministers  was 
put  to  vote,  and  carried  by  a  majority  of  two  thirds  of 
the  house. 

Lord  North  then  proposed  a  new  bill,  the  object  of 
which  was  to  restrict  the  commerce  of  New  England 
to  Great  Britain,  Ireland,  and  the  West  India  islands, 
and  prohibit,  at  the  same  time,  the  fishery  of  Newfound- 
land. This  bill  was  also  approved  by  a  great  majority. 
The  opposition  protested;  the  ministers  scarcely  deign- 
ed to  perceive  it. 

But  the  counsels  of  the  ministers  ended  not  here. 
Wishing  to  blend  with  rigour  a  certain  clemency,  and 
also  to  prevent  new  occasions  of  insurrection  in  the 
colonies,  they  brought  forward  the  project  of  a  law, 
purporting  that  when  in  any  province  or  colony,  the 
Governour,  Council,  Assembly,  or  General  Court, 
should  propose  to  make  provisions  according  to  their  re- 
spective conditions,  circumstances  and  faculties,  for  con- 
tributing their  proportion  to  the  common  defence;  such 
proportion  to  be  raised  under  the  authorities  of  the 
General  Court  or  Assembly  in  each  province  or  colony, 
and  disposable  by  Parliament ;  and  should  engage  to 


28  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

make  provision  also  for  the  support  of  the  civil  gov- 
ernment, and  the  administration  of  justice  in  such  prov- 
ince  or  colony;  it  would  be  proper,  if  such  proposal 
should  he  approved  by  the  King  in  his  Parliament, 
and  for  so  long  as  such  provision  should  be  made  ac- 
cordingly, to  forbear,  in  respect  of  such  province  or 
colony,  to  impose  any  duties,  taxes,  or  assessments,  ex- 
cept only  such  as  might  be  thought  necessary  for  the 
regulation  of  commerce.  This  likewise  received  the 
usual  large  majority  in  its  favour,  with  directions  to 
lay  it  before  the  respective  provincial  legislatures.  It 
was  at  least  hoped  that  if  the  scheme  did  not  finally 
succeed,  it  might  produce  disunion  or  discontent. 

Accordingly,  on  the  first  of  June,  1775,  this  resolu- 
tion was  presented  by  Lord  Dunmore,  the  Governour, 
to  the  legislature  of  Virginia ;  and  Mr.  Jefferson  was 
selected  by  the  committee,  to  whom  it  was  referred,  to 
frame  the  reply.  This  was  done  with  so  much  force 
of  argument,  enlarged  patriotism,  and  sound  political 
discretion,  that  it  will  ever  be  considered  as  a  document 
of  the  highest  order.  It  concludes  in  these  words : 

•*  These,  my  Lord,  are  our  sentiments  on  this  impor- 
tant subject,  which  we  offer  only  as  an  individual  part 
of  the  whole  empire.  Final  determination  we  leave 
to  the  General  Congress  now  sitting,  before  whom  we 
shall  lay  the  papers  your  Lordship  has  communicated 
to  us.  For  ourselves,  we  have  exhausted  every  mode 
of  application  which  our  invention  could  suggest  as 
proper  and  promising.  We  have  decently  remonstra- 
ted with  Parliament:  they  have  added  new  injuries  to 
the  old.  We  have  wearied  our  King  with  supplica- 
tions :  he  has  not  deigned  to  answer  us.  We  have 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  29 

appealed  to  the  native  honour  and  justice  of  the  British 
nation :  their  efforts  in  our  favour  have  hitherto  been 
ineffectual.  What,  then,  remains  to  be  done?  That  we 
commit  our  injuries  to  the  even-handed  justice  of  that 
Being-  who  doth  no  wrong,  earnestly  beseeching  him 
to  illuminate  the  couici'.s,  and  prosper  the  endeavours 
of  those  to  whom  America  hath,  confided  her  hopes  ; 
that,  through  their  wise  directions,  we  may  again  see 
reunited  the  blessings  of  liberty,  prosperity,  and  har- 
mony with  Great  Britain." 

When  this  address  had  been  passed,  Mr.  Jefferson 
immediately  proceeded  to  Congress,  which  was  then  in 
session,  and  gave  them  the  first  notice  they  had  of  it. 
It  was  highly  approved  of  by  them.  He  had  been 
elected  on  the  twenty-seventh  of  March,  1775,  one  of  the 
members  to  represent  Virginia  in  the  General  Con- 
gress already  assembled  at  Philadelphia,  but  had  de- 
layed his  departure  until  now  at  the  request  of  Mr, 
Randolph,  who  was  fearfal  the  draughting  of  the  ad- 
dress alluded  to  would,  in  his  absence,  have  fallen  into 
feebler  hands.  An  elegant  biographer  asserts:  "  When 
about  to  leave  the  colony,  a  circumstance ,  is  stated  to 
have  occurred  to  him,  and  to  Mr.  Harrison  and  Mr.  Lee, 
his  fellow  delegates,  that  conveyed  a  noble  mark  of  the 
unbounded  confidence  which  their  constituents  reposed 
in  their  integrity  and  virtue.  A  portion  of  the  inhabit- 
ants, who,  far  removed  from  the  scenes  of  actual  tyranny 
which  were  acted  in  New  England,  and  pursuing  unin- 
terruptedly their  ordinary  pursuits,  could  form  no  idea 
of  the  slavery  impending  over  them,  waited  on  their 
three  representatives,  just  before  their  departure,  and 
addressed  them  in  the  following  terms  : 
4 


30  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

11  You  assert  that  there  is  a  fixed  design  to  invade 
our  rights  and  privileges ;  we  own  that  we  do  not  see 
this  clearly,  but  since  you  assure  us  that  it  is  so,  we 
believe  the  fact.  We  are  about  to  take  a  very  danger- 
ous step ;  but  we  confide  in  you,  and  are  ready  to  sup- 
port you  in  every  measure  you  shall  think  proper  to 
adopt."  On  the  twenty-first  of  June,  1775,  Mr.  Jef- 
ferson appeared,  and  took  his  seat  in  the  Continental 
Congress.  In  this  new  capacity  he  persevered  in  the 
decided  tone  which  he  had  assumed,  always  maintain- 
ing that  no  accommodation  should  be  made  between 
the  two  countries,  unless  on  the  broadest  and  most  lib- 
eral principles ;  and  here,  as  elsewhere,  he  soon  ren- 
dered himself  conspicuous  among  the  most  able  and 
distinguished  men  of  the  day.  On  the  twenty-fourth 
of  the  same  month,  a  committee  which  had  been  ap- 
pointed to  prepare  a  declaration  setting  forth  the  causes 
and  necessity  of  resorting  to  arms,  brought  in  their  re- 
port, (drawn  up,  as  it  was  believed,  by  J.  Rutledge,) 
which,  not  being  approved  of,  the  house  recommitted 
it,  and  added  Mr.  Dickinson  and  Mr.  Jefferson  to  the 
committee.  It  is  on  this  occasion  that  Mr.  Jefferson 
relates  the  following  circumstance  :  "  On  the  rising  of 
the  house,  the  committee  having  not  yet  met,  I  happen- 
ed to  find  myself  near  Governour  W.  Livingston,  and 
proposed  to  him  to  draw  the  paper,  fie  excused  him- 
self, and  proposed  that  I  should  draw  it.  On  my  pres- 
.  sing  him  with  urgency, '  We  are  as  yet  but  new  ac- 
quaintances, sir,'  said  he,  'why  are  you  so  earnest  for 
my  doing  it  ?'  'Because,'  said  I,  '  I  have  been  informed 
that  you  drew  the  address  to  the  people  of  Great  Britain, 
a  production,  certainly,  of  the  finest  pen  in  America.' 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  31 

*  On  that,'  says  he,  'perhaps,  sir,  you  may  not  have  been 
correctly  informed.'  I  had  received  the  information 
in  Virginia,  from  Colonel  Harrison,  on  his  return  from 
that  Congress.  Lee,  Livingston,  and  Jay,  had  been, 
the  committee  for  the  draught.  The  first,  prepared  by 
Lee,  had  been  disapproved  and  recommitted.  The  sec- 
ond was  drawn  by  Jay,  but  being  presented  by  Gov- 
ernour  Livingston,  had  led  Colonel  Harrison  into  the 
errour.  The  next  morning,  walking  in  the  Hall  of 
Congress,  many  members  being  assembled,  but  the 
house  not  yet  formed,  I  observed  Mr.  Jay  speaking  to 
R.  H.  Lee,  and  leading  him  by  the  button  of  his  coat  to 
me.  *  I  understand,  sir,'  said  he  to  me,  *  that  this  gen- 
tleman informed  you,  that  Governour  Livingston  drew 
the  address  to  the  people  of  Great  Britain.'  I  assur- 
ed him  at  once  that  I  had  not  received  that  information 
from  Mr.  Lee,  and  that  not  a  word  had  ever  passed  on 
the  subject  between  Mr.  Lee  and  myself;  and  after 
some  explanations,  the  subject  was  dropped.  These 
gentlemen  had  had  some  sparrings  in  debate  before, 
and  continued  ever  very  hostile  to  each  other." 

Mr.  Jefferson  prepared  the  draught  of  the  declara- 
tion committed  to  them.  It  was  drawn  with  singular 
ability,  and  exhibited  his  usual  firmness  and  discretion; 
but  it  was  considered  as  too  decided  by  Mr.  Dickinson. 
He  still  nourished  the  hope  of  a  reconciliation  with 
Great  Britain,  and  was  unwilling  it  should  be  lessened 
by  what  he  considered  as  offensive  statements.  He 
was  so  honest  a  man,  says  Mr.  Jefferson,  and  so  able  a 
one,  that  he  was  greatly  indulged  even  by  those  who 
could  not  feel  his  scruples.  He  was  therefore  request- 
ed to  take  the  paper  and  put  it  in  a  form  he  could  ap- 


32  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

prove.  He  did  so,  preparing  an  entire  new  statement, 
and  preserving  of  the  former  only  the  last  four  para- 
graphs and  half  of  the  preceding  one.  The  committee 
approved  and  reported  it  to  Congress,  who  accepted  it. 
Congress,  continues  Mr.  Jefferson,  gave  a  signal  proof 
of  their  indulgence  to  Mr.  Dickinson,  and  of  their 
great  desire  not  to  go  too  fast  for  any  respectable  part 
of  their  hody  in  permitting  him  to  draw  their  second 
petition  to  the  King,  according  to  his  own  ideas,  and 
passing  it  with  scarcely  any  amendment.  The  dis- 
gust against  its  humility  was  general;  and  Mr.  Dick- 
inson's delig-ht  at  its  passage,  was  the  only  circum- 
stance which  reconciled  them  to  it.  The  vote  being 
passed,  although  further  observation  on  it  was  out  of 
order,  he  could  not  refrain  from  rising  and  expressing 
his  satisfaction,  ajid  concluded  by  saying,  l  There  is  but 
one  word,  Mr.  President,  in  the  paper,  \vhich  I  disap- 
prove, and  that  is  the  word  Congress ;"  on  which 
Mr.  B.  Harrison  rose  and  replied,  "  There  is  but  one 
word  in  the  paper,  Mr.  President,  of  which  I  approve, 
and  that  is  the  word  Congress." 

Lord  North's  conciliatory  resolution  coming  before 
the  house,  Mr.  Jefferson,  as  one  of  the  committee,  was 
requested  to  prepare  the  report  on  the  same.  The  an- 
swer of  the  Virginia  Assembly  on  the  same  subject 
having  been  approved,  will  account  for  any  similarity 
between  the  two  reports,  they  both  having  proceeded 
from  the  same  hand. 

O»  the  eleventh  of  August,  Mr.  Jefferson  was  again 
elected  a  delegate  from  Virginia,  to  the  third  Congress. 
Though  constantly  and  actively  engaged  during  the 
winter  in  the  various  matters  which  engaged  the  atten- 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  33 

tion  of  the  house,  yet  he  seems  rather  to  have  devoted 
himself  to  objects  of  general  policy,  the  arrangement  of 
general  plans  and  systems  of  action,  the  investigation 
of  important  documents,  and  objects  of  a  similar  na- 
ture, than  to  the  details  of  active  business,  for  which 
other  members  could  probably  be  found  equally  well 
qualified. 

The  eventful  year  of  1776  set  in,  and  brought  with 
it  a  new  aspect,  one  of  more  energy,  and  with  motives 
and  objects  more  decided  and  apparent.  "Eighteen, 
months,"  says  an  able  writer,  "  had  passed  away,  since 
the  colonists  had  learned  by  the  entrenchments  at  Bos- 
ton, that  a  resort  to  arms  was  an  event  not  beyond  the 
contemplation  of  the  British  ministry ;  nearly  a  year 
had  elapsed,  since  the  fields  of  Concord  and  Lexington 
had  been  stained  with  hostile  blood  ;  during  this  inter- 
val armies  had  been  raised,  vessels  of  war  had  been 
equipped,  fortifications  had  been  erected,  gallant  ex- 
ploits had  been  performed,  and  eventful  battles  had 
been  lost  and  won ;  yet  still  were  the  provinces  bound 
to  their  British  brothers  by  the  ties  of  a  similar  allegi- 
ance ;  still  did  they  look  upon  themselves  as  members 
of  the  same  empire,  subjects  of  the  same  sovereign,  and 
partners  in  the  same  constitution  and  laws.  They  ac- 
knowledged, that  the  measures  they  had  adopted  were 
not  the  result  of  choice,  but  the  exercise  of  a  right,  if 
not  a  duty,  resulting  from  this  very  situation ;  they 
confessed  that  they  were  engaged  in  a  controversy  pe- 
culiarly abhorrent  to  their  affections,  of  which  the  only 
object  was  to  restore  the  harmony  formerly  existing  be- 
tween the  two  countries,  and  to  establish  it  on  so  firm 
a  basis  as  to  perpetuate  its  blessings  uninterrupted  by 
4* 


34  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

any  future  dissensions  to  succeeding  generations  in 
both  nations." 

But  patience  has  its  limits,  though  aggression  and 
abuse  may  know  no  end  :  and  there  is  a  period  when 
the  duty  which  man  owes  not  only  to  himself  but  his 
posterity  prohibits  all  further  forbearance.  Actuated 
by  such  feelings  and  sentiments,  the  Convention  of 
Virginia,  on  the  15th  of  May,  1776,  instructed  their 
delegates  in  Congress  to  propose  to  that  body  to  declare 
the  colonies  independent  of  Great  Britain,  and  appoint- 
ed a  committee  to  prepare  a  declaration  of  rights  and 
plan  of  government. 

Every  thing  relating  to  so  important  a  document  as 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  must  be  of  vital  in- 
terest :  a  document  which  assigns  the  reasons  for  the 
separation  of  the  colonies  from  Great  Britain ;  which 
appeals  to  heaven  for  the  justness  of  their  cause ;  which 
bears  the  signatures  of  some  of  the  firmest  patriots  that 
ever  existed ;  and  which  resulted  in  giving  a  new  and 
mighty  empire  to  the  world.  More  particularly,  in  a 
work  of  this  kind,  is  such  notice  due  to  a  production 
which  links  inseparably  the  name  of  Jefferson  to  that 
of  his  country.  Of  its  discussion  from  its  commence- 
ment until  its  final  adoption,  we  have  for  the  first  time 
a  correct  account  in  actual  notes  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  late- 
ly published,  and  made  at  the  time.  From  these  notes 
we  propose  to  make  liberal  extracts  of  the  most  inter- 
esting matters :  the  arguments  of  debate  on  each  side 
are  peculiarly  so:  and  that  the  publick  may  have  the 
information  in  a  portable  form. 

In  Congress,  Friday,  June  7,  1776.  The  delegates 
from  Virginia  moved  in  obedience  to  instructions  from 


LIFE    OF   JEFFERSON.  35 

their  constituents,  that  the  Congress  should  declare 
that  these  United  Colonies  are,  and  of  right  ought  to 
be,  free  and  independent  states ;  that  they  are  absolved 
from  all  allegiance  to  the  British  crown,  and  that  all 
political  connexion  between  them  and  the  state  of 
Great  Britain  is,  and  ought  to  be,  totally  dissolved; 
that  measures  should  be  immediately  taken  for  procur- 
ing the  assistance  of  foreign  powers,  and  a  confedera- 
tion be  formed  to  bind  the  colonies  more  closely  together. 

The  house  being  obliged  to  attend  at  that  time  to 
eome  other  business,  the  proposition  was  referred  to  the 
next  day,  when  the  members  \vere  ordered  to  attend 
punctually  at  ten  o'clock. 

Saturday,  June  8th.  They  proceeded  to  take  it  into 
consideration,  and  referred  it  to  a  committee  of  the 
whole,  into  which  they  immediately  resolved  them- 
selves, and  passed  that  day  and  Monday  the  10th,  in  de- 
bating on  the  subject. 

It  was  argued  by  Wilson,  Robert  R,  Livingston,  E. 
Rutledge,  Dickinson,  and  others — 

That  though  they  were  friends  to  the  measures 
themselves,  and  saw  the  impossibility  that  we  should 
ever  again  be  united  with  Great  Britain,  yet  they  were, 
against  adopting  them  at  this  time: 

That  the  conduct  we  had  formerly  observed  waa 
wise  and  proper  now,  of  deferring  tatake  any  capital 
6tep  till  the  voice  of  the  people  drove  us  into  it : 

That  they  were  our  power,  and  without  them  our 
declarations  could  not  be  carried  into  effect : 

That  the  people  of  the  middle  colonies  (Maryland, 
Delaware,  Pennsylvania,  the  Jerseys,  and  New  York) 
were  not  yet  ripe  for  bidding  adieu  to  British,  connex- 


36  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

ion,  but  that  they  were  fast  ripening,  and  in  a  short 
time  would  join  in  the  general  voice  of  America : 

That  the  resolution,  entered  into  by  this  house  on 
the  15th  of  May,  for  suppressing  the  exercise  of  all 
powers  derived  from  the  crown,  had  shown,  by  the  fer- 
ment into  .which  it  had  thrown  these  middle  colonies, 
that  they  had  not  yet  accommodated  their  minds  to  a 
separation  from  the  mother  country: 

That  some  of  them  had  expressly  forbidden  their 
delegates  to  consent  to  such  a  declaration,  and  others 
had  given  no  instructions,  and  consequently  no  powers, 
to  give  such  consent: 

That  if  the  delegates  of  any  particular  colony  had 
no  power  to  declare  such  colony  independent,  certain 
they  were,  the  others  could  not  declare  it  for  them ; 
the  colonies  being  as  yet  perfectly  independent  of 
each  other : 

That  the  Assembly  of  Pennsylvania  was  now  sitting 
above  stairs,  their  Convention  would  sit  within  a  few 
days,  the  Convention  of  New  York  was  now  sitting, 
and  those  of  the  Jerseys  and  Delaware  counties  would 
meet  on  the  Monday  following,  and  it  was  probable 
these  bodies  would  take  up  the  question  of  indepen- 
dence, and  would  declare  to  their  delegates  the  voice 
of  their  state: 

That  if  such  a  declaration  should  now  be  agreed 
to,  these  delegates  must  retire,  and  possibly  their  col- 
onies might  secede  from  the  Union : 

That  such  a  secession  would  weaken  us  more  than 
could  be  compensated  by  any  foreign  alliance : 

That  in  the  event  of  such  a  division,  foreign  powers 
would  either  refuse  to  join  themselves  to  our  fortunes, 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  37 

or,  having  us  so  much  in  their  power  as  that  desperate 
declaration  would  place  us,  they  would  insist  on  terms 
proportionably  more  hard  and  prejudicial : 

That  we  had  little  reason  to  expect  an  alliance  with 
those  to  whom  alone,  as  yet,  we  had  cast  our  eyes : 

That  France  and  Spain  had  reason  to  be  jealous  of 
that  rising  power,  which  would  one  day  certainly  strip 
them  of  all  their  American  possessions: 

That  it  was  more  likely  they  should  form  a  connex- 
ion with  the  British  court,  who,  if  they  should  find 
themselves  unable  otherwise  to  extricate  themselves 
from  their  difficulties,  would  agree  to  a  partition  of  our 
territories,  restoring  Canada  to  France,  and  the  Flori- 
das  to  Spain,  to  a'ccomplish  for  themselves  a  recovery 
of  these  colonies : 

That  it  would  not  be  long  before  we  should  receive 
certain  information  of  the  disposition  of  the  French 
court,  from  the  agent  whom  we  had  sent  to  Paris  for 
that  purpose: 

That  if  this  disposition  should  be  favourable,  by  wait- 
ing the  event  of  the  present  campaign,  which  we  all 
hoped  Avould  b£  successful,  we  should  have  reason  to 
expect  an  alliance  on  better  terms: 

That  this  would  in  fact  work  no  delay  of  any  effectu- 
al aid  from  such  ally,  as,  from  the  advance  of  the  sea- 
son and  distance  of  our  situation,  it  was  impossible  we 
could  receive  any  assistance  during  this  campaign: 

That  it  was  prudent  to  fix  among  ourselves  the  terms 
on  which  we  would  form  alliance,  before  we  declared 
we  would  form  one  at  all  events : 

And  that  if  thes?  were  agreed  on,  and  our  declaration  of 
independence  ready  by  the  time  our  ambassador  should 


38  LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON. 

be  prepared  to  sail,  it  would  be  as  well,  as  to  go  into  that 
declaration  at  this  day. 

On  the  other  side,  it  was  urged  by  J.  Adams,  Lee, 
Wytheand  others,  that  no  gentleman  had  argued  against 
the  policy  or  the  right  of  separation  from  Britain,  nor 
had  supposed  it  possible  we  should  ever  renew  our 
connexion ;  that  they  had  only  opposed  its  being  now 
declared : 

That  the  question  was  not  whether,  by  a  declaration 
of  independence,  we  should  make  ourselves  what  we 
are  not ;  but  whether  we  should  declare  a  fact  which 
already  exists : 

That  as  to  the  people  or  parliament  of  England,  we 
had  always. been  independent  of  them,  their  restraints 
on  our  trade  deriving  efficacy  from  our  acquiescence 
only,  and  not  from  any  rights  they  possessed  of  impos- 
ing them,  and  that  so  far  our  connexion  had  been  fed- 
eral only,  and  was  now  dissolved  by  the  commencement 
of  hostilities: 

That,  as  to  the  King,  we  had  been  bound  to  him  by  al- 
legiance, but  that  this  bond  was  now  dissolved  by  his 
assent  to  the  late  act  of  Parliament,  by  which  he  de- 
clares us  out  of  his  protection,  and  by  his  levying  war 
on  us,  a  fact  which  had  long  ago  proved  us  out  of  his 
protection ;  it  being  a  certain  position  in  law,  that  allegi- 
ance and  protection  are  reciprocal,  the  one  ceasing 
when  the  other  is  withdrawn: 

That  James  the  II.  never  declared  the  people  of 
England  out  of  his  protection ;  yet  his  actions  proved 
it,  and  the  parliament  declared  it: 

No  delegates  then  can  be  denied,  or  ever  want,  a 
power  of  declaring  an  existent  truth; 


LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON.  39 

That  the  delegates  from  the  Delaware  counties  hav- 
ing declared  their  constituents  ready  to  join,  there  are 
only  two  colonies,  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland,  whose 
delegates  are  absolutely  tied  up,  and  that  these  had,  by 
their  instructions,  only  reserved  a  right  of  confirming 
or  rejecting  the  measure: 

That  the  instructions  from  Pennsylvania  might  be 
accounted  for  from  the  times  in  which  they  were  drawn, 
near  a  twelvemonth  ago,  since  which  the  face  of  affairs 
has  totally  changed : 

That  within  that  time,  it  had  become  apparent  that 
Britain  was  determined  to  accept  nothing  less  than  a 
carte-blanche,  and  that  the  King's  answer  to  the  Lord 
Mayor,  Aldermen,  and  Common  Council  of  London, 
which  had  come  to  hand  four  days  ago,  must  have  sat- 
isfied every  one  of  this  point: 

That  the  people  wait  for  us  to  lead  the  way: 

That  they  are  in  favour  of  the  measure,  though 
the  instructions  given  by  some  of  their  representatives 
are  not : 

That  the  voice  of  the  representatives  is  not  always 
consonant  with  the  voice  of  the  people,  and  that  this  is 
remarkably  the  case  in  these  middle  colonies : 

That  the  effect  of  the  resolution  of  the  15th  of  May 
has  proved  this,  which,  raising  the  murmurs  of  some 
in  the  colonies  of  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland,  called 
forth  the  opposing  voice  of  the  freer  part  of  the  people, 
and  proved  them  to  be  the  majority  even  in  these  colo- 
nies : 

That  the  backwardness  of  these  two  colonies  might 
be  ascribed  partly  to  the  influence  of  proprietary  pow- 


40  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

er  and  connexions,  and  partly  to  their  having  not  yet 
been  attacked  by  the  enemy : 

That  these  causes  were  not  likely  to  be  soon  remov- 
ed, as  there  seemed  no  probability  that  the  enemy  would 
make  either  of  these  the  seat  of  this  summer's  war : 

That  it  would  be  vain  to  wait  either  weeks  or  months 
for  perfect  unanimity,  since  it  was  impossible  that  all 
men  should  ever  become  of  one  sentiment  on  any  ques- 
tion: 

That  the  conduct  of  some  colonies,  from  the  begin- 
ning of  this  contest,  had  given  reason  to  suspect  it  was 
their  settled  policy  to  keep  in  the  rear  of  the  confeder- 
acy, that  their  particular  prospect  might  be  better,  even 
in  the  worst  event; 

That,  therefore,  it  was  necessary  for  those  colonies 
who  had  thrown  themselves  forward  and  hazarded  all 
from  the  beginning,  to  come  forward  now  also,  and  put 
all  again  to  their  own  hazard : 

That  the  history  of  the  Dutch  revolution,  of  whom 
three  states  only  confederated  at  first,  proved  that  a  se- 
cession of  some  colonies  would  not  be  so  dangerous  as 
some  apprehended : 

That  a  declaration  of  independence  alone  could  ren- 
der it  consistent  with  European  delicacy,  fjr  European 
powers  to  treat  with  us,  or  even  to  receive  an  ambassa- 
dor from  us : 

That  till  this,  they  wculd  not  receive  our  vessels  in- 
to their  ports,  nor  acknowledge  the  adjudications  of  our 
courts  of  admiralty  to  be  legitimate,  incases  of  capture 
of  British  vessels : 

That  though  France  and  Spain  may  be  jealous  of 
our  rising  power,  they  must  think  it  will  be  much  more 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  41 

formidable  with  the  addition  of  Great  Britain ;  and  will 
therefore  see  it  their  interest  to  prevent  a  coalition ;  but 
should  they  refuse,  we  shall  be  but  where  we  are ; 
whereas,  without  trying,  we  shall  never  know  wheth- 
er they  will  aid  us  or  not : 

That  the  present  campaign  may  be  unsuccessful,  and 
therefore  we  had  better  propose  an  alliance  while  our 
affairs  wear  a  hopeful  aspect : 

That  to  wait  the  event  of  this  campaign  will  certain- 
ly work  delay,  because,  during  this  summer,  France 
may  assist  us  effectually,  by  cutting  off  those  supplies 
of  provisions  from  England  and  Ireland,  on  which  the 
enemy's  army  here  are  to  depend :  or  by  setting  in 
motion  the  great  power  they  have  collected  in  the  West 
Indies,  and  calling  our  enemy  to  the  defence  of  the 
possessions  they  have  there : 

That  it  would  be  idle  to  lose  time  in  settling  the  terms 
of  alliance,  till  we  had  first  determined  we  should  enter 
into  alliance: 

That  it  is  necessary  to  lose  no  time  in  opening  a 
trade  for  our  people,  who  will  want  clothes ;  and  will 
want  money  too,  for  the  payment  of  taxes : 

And  that  the  only  misfortune  is,  that  we  did  not  en- 
ter into  alliance  with  France  six  months  sooner,  as,  be- 
sides opening  her  ports  for  the  vent  of  our  last  year's 
produce,  she  might  have  marched  an  army  into  Ger- 
many, and  prevented  the  petty  princes  there  from  sell' 
ing  their  unhappy  subjects  to  subdue  us. 

It  appearing,  in  the  course  of  these  debates,  that  the 

colonies  of  New  Ybrk,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania, 

Delaware,  Maryland,  and  South  Carolina,  were  not  yet 

matured  for  falling  from  the  parent  stem,  but  that  they 

5 


42  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

were  fast  advancing  to  that  state,  it  was  thought  most 
prudent  to  wait  awhile  for  them,  and  to  postpone  the 
final  decision  to  July  1st:  but,  that  this  might  occasion 
as  little  delay  as  possible,  a  committee  was  appointed 
to  prepare  a  declaration  of  independence.  The  com- 
mittee were  John  Adams,  Dr.  Franklin,  Roger  Sher- 
man, Robert  R.  Livingston,  and  myself.  Committees 
were  also  appointed,  at  the  same  time,  to  prepare  a  plan 
of  confederation  for  the  colonies,  and  to  state  the  terms 
proper  to  be  proposed  for  foreign  alliance.  The  com- 
mittee for  drawing  the  declaration  of  independence  de- 
sired me  to  do  it.  It  was  accordingly  done,  and  being 
approved  by  them,  I  reported  it  to  the  house  on  Friday 
the  28th  oif  June,  when  it  was  read  and  ordered  to  lie  on 
the  table.  On  Monday,  the  1st  of  July,  the  House  re- 
solved itself  into  a  committee  of  the  whole,  and  resumed 
the  consideration  of  the  original  motion  made  by  the 
delegates  of  Virginia,  which  being  again  debated 
through  the  day,  was  carried  in  the  affirmative  by  the 
votes  of  New  Hampshire,  Connecticut,  Massachusetts, 
Rhode  Island,  New  Jersey,  Maryland,  Virginia,  North 
Carolina,  and  Georgia.  South  Carolina  and  Penn- 
sylvania voted  against  it.  Delaware  had  but  two 
members  present,  and  they  were  divided.  The 
delegates  from  New  York  declared  they  were  for 
it  themselves,  and  were  assured  their  constituents 
were  for  it ;  but  that  their  instructions  having 
been  drawn  near  a  twelvemonth  before,  when  re- 
conciliation was  still  the  general  object,  they  were 
enjoined  by  them  to  do  nothing  which 'should  impede 
that  object.  They  therefore  thought  themselves  not 
justifiable  in  voting  on  either  side,  and  asked  leave  to 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  43 

withdraw  from  the  question,  which  was  given  them. 
The  committee  rose  and  reported  their  resolution  to  the 
house.  Mr.  Edward  Rutledge,  of  South  Carolina, 
then  requested  the  determination  might  he  put  off  to 
the  next  day,  as  he  believed  his  colleagues,  though 
they  disapproved  of  the  resolution,  would  then  join  in 
it  for  the  sake  of  unanimity.  The  ultimate  question, 
whether  the  house  would  agree  to  the  resolution  of  the 
committee,  was  accordingly  postponed  to  the  next  day, 
when  it  was  again  moved,  and  South  Carolina  concur- 
red in  voting  for  it.  In  the  mean  time,  a  third  member 
had  come  post  from  the  Delaware  counties,  and  turned 
the  vote  of  that  colony  in  favour  of  the  resolution. — 
Members  of  a  different  sentiment  attending  that  morn- 
ing from  Pennsylvania  also,  her  vote  was  changed,  so 
that  the  whole  twelve  colonies,  who  were  authorized 
to  vote  at  all,  gave  their  voices  for  it ;  and  within  a  few 
days  the  Convention  of  New  York  approved  of  it,  and 
thus  supplied  the  void  occasioned  by  the  withdrawing  of 
her  delegates  from  the  vote. 

Congress  proceeded  the  same  day  to  consider  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  which  had  been  reported 
and  laid  on  the  table  the  Friday  preceding,  and  on 
Monday  referred  it  to  a  committee  of  the  whole.  The 
pusillanimous  idea  that  we  had  friends  in  England 
worth  keeping  terms  with,  still  haunted  the  minds  of 
many.  For  this  reason,  those  passages  which  convey- 
ed censure  on  the  people  of  England  were  struck  out, 
lest  they  should  give  them  offence.  The  clause  too, 
reprobating  the  enslaving  the  inhabitants  of  Africa, 
was  struck  out,  in  compliance  to  South  Carolina  and 
Georgia,  who  had  never  attempted  to  restrain  the  in> 


44  LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON. 

*      V  "' 

portation  of  slaves,  and  who,  on  the  contrary,  still  wish- 
ed to  continue  it.  Our  northern  brethren  also,  I  be- 
lieve, felt  a  little  tender  under  those  censures ;  for  though 
their  people  had  very  few  slaves  themselves,  yet  they 
had  been  pretty  considerable  carriers  of  them  to  others. 
The  debates  having  taken  up  the  greater  part  of  the 
2d,  3d,  and  4th  days  of  July,  were,  on  the  evening  of 
the  last,  closed ;  the  declaration  was  reported  by  the 
committee,  agreed  to  by  the  house,  and  signed  by  eve- 
ry member  present,  except  Mr.  Dickinson. 

The  declaration  as  it  was  originally  presented  to 
Congress,  and  as  it  was  subsequently  published  to  the 
world,  is  here  given,  as  peculiarly  proper  to  be  inserted 
in  a  memoir  of  its  illustrious  author;  marking  in  ital- 
icksihe  words  which  were  erased  by  Congress,  and  in- 
troducing between  brackets  the  additions  and  substitu- 
tions that  were  made  before  it  received  the  sanction  of 
that  body.  It  is  as  follows :: 

"  When,  in  the  course  of  human  events,  it  becomes 
necessary  for  one  people  to  dissolve  the  political  bands 
which  have  connected  them  with  another,  and  to  as- 
sume among  the  powers  of  the  earth  the  separate  and 
equal  station  to  which  the  laws  of  nature  and  of  na- 
ture's God  entitle  them,  a  decent  respect  to  the  opin- 
ions of  mankind  requires  that  they  should  declare  the 
causes  which  impel  them  to  the  separation. 

"  We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident :  that  all 
men  are  created  oqual ;  that  they  are  endowed  by  their 
Creator  with  [certain]  inherent  and  inalienable  rights  ; 
that  among  these  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  hap- 


.   ,  '  •     • 

>#  '.'..  r- 

LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON.  45> 

piness ;  that  to  secure  these  rights,  governments  are 
instituted  among  men,  deriving  their  just  powers  from 
the  consent  of  the  governed ;  that  whenever  any  form 
of  government  becomes  destructive  of  these  ends,  it  is 
the  right  of  the  people  to  alter  or  abolish  it,  and  to  in- 
stitute new  government,  laying  its  foundation  on  such 
principles,  and  organizing  its  powers  in  such  form,  as 
to  them  shall  seem  most  likely  to  effect  their  safety 
and  happiness.  Prudence,  indeed,  will  dictate,  that 
governments  long  established  should  not  be  changed 
for  light  and  transient  causes  •  and  accordingly,  all  ex- 
perience hath  shown  that  mankind  are  more  disposed 
to  suffer  while  evils  are  sufferable,  than  to  right  them- 
selves by  abolishing  the  forms  to  which  they  are  ac- 
customed. But  when  a  long  train  of  abuses  and  usur- 
pations, begun  at  a  distant  period  and  pursuing 
invariably  the  same  object,  evinces  a  design  to  re- 
duce them  under  absolute  despotism,  it  is  their  right, 
it  is  their  duty,  to  throw  off  such  government,  and  to 
provide  new  guards  for  their  future  security.  Such 
has  been  the  patient  sufferance  of  these  colonies,  and 
such  is  now  the  necessity  which  constrains  them  to 
[alter]  expunge  their  former  systems  of  government. 
"  The  history  of  the  present  King  of  Great  Britain 
is  a  history  o'f  [repeated]  unremitting  injuries  and 
usurpations,  among  which  appears  no  solitary  fact 
to  contradict  the  uniform  tenour  of 'the  rest ;  but  all 
have  [all  having]  in  direct  object,  the  establishment  of 
an  absolute  tyranny  over  these  states.  To  prove  this, 
let  facts  be  submitted  to  a  candid  world,  for  the  truth 
of  which  we  pledge  a  faith  yet  unsullied  by  false- 
hood. 

5* 


46  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

"He  has  refused  his  assent  to  laws  the  most  whole-- 
some and  necessary  for  the  publick  good. 

"  He  has  forbidden  his  Governours  to  pass  laws  of 
immediate  and  pressing  importance,  unless  suspended 
in  their  operation  till  his  assent  should  be  obtained ; 
and  when  so  suspended,  he  has  utterly  neglected  to 
attend  to  them. 

"  He  has  refused  to  pass  other  laws  for  the  accom- 
modation of  large  districts  of  people,  unless  those 
people  would  relinquish  the  right  of  representation  in 
the  legislature,  a  right  inestimable  to  them,  and  formi- 
dable to  tyrants  only. 

"  He  has  called  together  legislative  bodies  at  places 
unusual,  uncomfortable,  and  distant  from  the  depository 
of  their  publick  records,  for  the  sole  purpose  of  fa- 
tiguing them  into  compliance  with  his  measures. 

"  He  has  dissolved  representative  houses  repeatedly 
and  continually,  for  opposing  with  manly  firmness 
his  invasions  on  the  rights  of  the  people- 

"  He  has  refused,  for  a  long  time  after  such  dissolu- 
tions, to  cause  others  to  be  elected  ;  whereby  the  legis- 
lative powers,  incapable  of  annihilation,  have  returned 
to  the  people  at  large  for  their  exercise  ;  the  state  re- 
maining in  the  mean  time  exposed  to  all  the  dangers  of 
invasion  from  without  and  convulsions  within. 

"  He  has  endeavoured  to  prevent  the  population  of 
these  states ;  for  that  purpose  obstructing  the  laws  for 
naturalization  of  foreigners,  refusing  to  pass  others  to 
encourage  their  migrations  hither ;  and  raising  the  con- 
ditions of  new  appropriations  of  lands. 

11  He  has  suffered  [obstructed]  the  administration  of 
justice  totally  to  cease  in  some  of  these  states,  [byl 


OF   JEFFERSON.  4T 

refusing  his  assent  to  laws  for  establishing  judiciary 
powers. 

"  He  has  made  our  judges  dependent  on  his  will 
alone  for  the  tenure  of  their  offices,  and  the  amount 
and  payment  of  their  salaries. 

"  He  has  erected  a  multitude  of  new  offices,  by  a 
self-assumed  power,  and  sent  hither  swarms  of  officers 
to  harass  our  people,  and  eat  out  their  substance. 

"  He  has  kept  among  us  in  times  of  peace,  standing 
armies  and  ships  of  war,  without  the  consent  of  our 
legislatures. 

"  He  has  affected  to  render  the  military  independent 
of  and  superiour  to  the  civil  power. 

"  He  has  combined  with  others  to  subject  us  to  a 
jurisdiction  foreign  to  our  constitution,  and  unac- 
knowledged by  our  laws ;  giving  his  assent  to  their 
acts  of  pretended  legislation  : 

"  For  quartering  large  bodies  of  armed  troops 
among  us : 

"  For  protecting  them,  by  mock  trial,  from  punish- 
ment for  any  murders  which  they  should  commit  on 
the  inhabitants  of  these  states  : 

"  For  cutting  off  our  trade  with  all  parts  of  the 
world : 

"  For^imposing  taxes  on  us  without  our  consent : 

"  For  depriving  us  [in  many  cases}  of  the  benefits- 
of  trial  by  jury : 

"  For  transporting  us  beyond  seas  to  be  tried  for 
pretended  offences : 

"  For  abolishing  the  free  system  of  English  laws  in, 
a  neighbouring  province,  establishing  therein  an  ar- 
bitrary government,  and  enlarging  its  boundaries,  so> 

I 


48  LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON. 

as  to  render  it  at  once  an  example  and  fit  instrument 
for  introducing  the  same  absolute  rule  into  these  states 
[colonies :] 

"  For  taking  away  our  charters,  abolishing  our 
most  valuable  laws,  and  altering  fundamentally  the 
forms  of  our  governments  : 

"  For  suspending  our  own  legislatures,  and  declar- 
ing themselves  invested  with  power  to  legislate  for  us 
in  all  cases  whatsoever : 

"  He  has  abdicated  government  here,  withdrawing 
his  Governours,  and  [by]  declaring  us  out  of  his 
allegiance  and  protection,  [and  waging  war  against 
us  :] 

"  He  has  plundered  our  seas,  ravaged  our  coasts, 
burnt  our  towns,  and  destroyed  the  lives  of  our  peo- 
ple : 

"  He  is  at  this  time  transporting  large  armies  of 
foreign  mercenaries  to  complete  the  works  of  death, 
desolation,  and  tyranny,  already  begun  with  circum- 
stances of  cruelty  and  perfidy,  [scarcely  paralleled  in . 
the  most  barbarous  ages,  and  totally]  unworthy  the 
head  of  a  civilized  nation. 

"He  has  constrained  our  fellow  citizens  taken  captive 
on  the  high  seas  to  bear  arms  against  their  country,  to- 
become  the  executioners  of  their  friends  and  brethren, 
or  to  fall  themselves  by  their  hands. 

"  He  has  [excited  domestick  insurrections  among  us, 
and  has]  endeavoured  to  bring  on  the  inhabitants  of 
our  frontiers,  the  merciless  Indian  savages,  whose 
known  rule  of  warfare  is  an  undistinguished  destruc- 
tion of  all  ages,  sexes,  and  conditions  of  existence. 

"  He  has  incited  treasonable  insurrections  of  our 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  49s 

fellow  citizens,  with  the  allurements  of  forfeiture 
and  confiscation  of  our  property. 

"He  has  waged  cruel  war  against  human  nature 
itself,  violating  its  most  sacred  rights  of  life  and 
liberty  in  the  persons  of  a  distant  people  who  never 
offended  him,  captivating  and  carrying  them  into 
slavery  in  another  hemisphere,  or  to  incur  misera- 
ble death  in  their  transportation  thither.  This 
piratical  warfare,  the  opprobrium  of  INFIDEL  pow- 
ers, is  the  war  fare  of  the  CHRISTIAN  King  of  Great 
Britain.  Determined  to  keep  open  a  market  where 
MEN  should  be  bought  and  sold,  he  has  prostituted 
his  negative  for  suppressing  every  legislative  at- 
tempt to  prohibit  or  to  restrain  this  execrable  com- 
merce. And  that  this  assemblage  of  horrours  might 
want.no  fact  of  distinguished  die,  he  is  now  ex- 
citing those  very  people  to  rise  in  arms  among  us, 
and  to  purchase  that  liberty  of  which  he  has  depri- 
ved them,  by  murdering  the  people  on  whom  he  also 
obtruded  them :  thus  paying-  of  former  crimes  com- 
mitted against  the  LIBERTIES  of  one  people,  with 
crimes  which  he  urges  them  to  commit  against  the 
LIVES  of  another. 

"  In  every  stage  of  these  oppressions,  we  have  peti- 
tioned for  redress  in  the  most  humble  terms :  our  re- 
peated petitions  have  been  answered  only  by  repeated 
injuries. 

"  A  prince  whose  character  is  thus  marked  by  every 
act  which  may  define  a  tyrant,  is  unfit  to  be  the  ruler  of 
a  [free]  people  who  mean  to  be  free.  Future  ages 
will  scarcely  believe  that  the  hardiness  of  one  man 
adventured,  within  the  short  compass  of  twelve 


50  ^IFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 


years  only,  to  lay  a  foundation  so  broad  and  so  un- 
disguised for  tyranny  over  a  people  fostered  and 
fixed  in  principles  of  freedom. 

"  Nor  have  we  been  wanting  in  attentions  to  our 
British  brethren.  We  have  warned  them  from  time 
to  time  of  attempts  by  their  legislature  to  extend  [an 
unwarrantable]  a  jurisdiction  over  [us]  these  our 
states.  We  have  reminded  them  of  the  circumstan- 
ces of  our  emigration  and  settlement  here,  no  one  of 
which  could  warrant  so  strange  a  pretension  :  that 
these  were  effected  at  the  expense  of  our  own  blood 
and  treasure,  unassisted  by  the  wealth  or  the 
strength  of  Great  Britain  :  that  in  constituting  in- 
deed our  several  forms  of  government,  we  had 
adopted  one  common  King,  thereby  laying  a  foun- 
dation for  perpetual  league  and  amity  with  them:- 
but  that  submission  to  their  parliament  was  no  part 
of  our  constitution,  nor  ever  in  idea,  if  history  may 
be  credited  :  and  we  [have]  appealed  to  their  native 
justice  and  magnanimity  as  well  as  to  [and  we  have 
conjured  them  by]  the  ties  of  our  common  kindred,  to 
disavow  these  usurpations,  which  were  likely  to  [would 
inevitably]  interrupt  our  connexion  and  correspond- 
ence. They  .too  have  been  deaf  to  the  voice  of  justice 
and  of  consanguinity  :  and  when  occasions  have  been 
given  them,  by  the  regular  course  of  their  laws,  of 
removing  from  their  councils  the  disturbers  of  our 
harmony,  they  have,  by  their  free  election,  re-estab- 
lished them  in  power.  At  this  very  time,  too,  they- 
are  permitting  their  chief  magistrate  to  send  over 
not  only  soldiers  of  our  common  blood,  but  Scotch 
and  foreign  mercenaries,  to  invade  and  destroy  us^ 


LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON.  51 

These  facts  have  given  the  last  stab  to  agonizing 
affection,  and  manly  spirit  bids  us  to  renounce  for 
ever  these  unfeeling  brethren.  We  must  endeavour 
to  for  get  our  former  love  for  them,  and  hold  them  as 
we  hold  the  rest  of  mankind,  enemies  in  war ;  in 
peace,  friends.  We  might  have  been  a  free  and  a 
great  people  together;  but  a  communication  of 
grandeur  and  of  freedom,  it  seems,  is  below  their 
dignity.  Be  it  so,  since  they  will  have  it.  The 
road  to  happiness  and  to  glory  is  open  to  us  too, 
We  will  tread  it  apart  from  them,  and  [we  must 
therefore]  acquiesce  in  the  necessity  which  denounces 
our  eternal  separation,  [and  hold  them  as  we  hold  the 
rest  of  mankind,  enemies  in  war;  in  peace,  friends!] 
"We,  therefore,  the  representatives  of  the  United 
States  of  America,  in  General  Congress  assembled, 
[appealing  to  the  Supreme  Judge  of  the  world  for  the 
rectitude  of  our  intentions,]  do  in  the  name  and  by  the 
authority  of  the  good  people  of  these  states,  [colonies,] 
reject  and  renounce  all  allegiance  and  subjection 
to  the  Kings  of  Great  Britain,  and  all  others  who 
may  hereafter  claim  by,  through,  or  under  them ; 
we  utterly  dissolve  all  political  connexion  which 
may  heretofore  have  subsisted  between  us  and  the 
parliament  of  Great  Britain ;  and  finally,  we  do 
assert  [solemnly  publish  arid  declare]  that  these  Uni- 
ted Colonies  are,  [and  of  right  ought  to  be,]  free  and 
independent  states ;  [that  they  are  absolved  from  all 
allegiance  to  the  British  crown,  and  that  all  political 
connexion  between  them  and  the  state  of  Great  Britain 
is,  and  ought  to  be,  totally  dissolved ;]  and  that,  as  free 
and  independent  states,  they  have  full  power  to  levy 


52  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON, 

war,  conclude  peace,  contract  alliances,  establish  com- 
merce, and  to  do  all  other  acts  and  things  which  inde- 
pendent states  may  of  right  do. 

"And  for  the  support  of  this  declaration,  [with a  firm 
reliance  on  the  protection  of  Divine  Providence,]  we 
mutually  pledge  to  each  other  our  lives,  our  fortunes, 
and  our  sacred  honour," 

The  Declaration  thus  signed  on  the  4th  on  paper,  was 
engrossed  on  parchment,  and  signed  again  on  the  2d 
of  August. 

Such  was  this  famous  declaration  of  the  indepen- 
dence of  the  United  States  of  America,  which,  necessa- 
ry as  it  appears  to  have  been,  says  Botta,  was  not,  how- 
ever, exempt  from  peril :  for  although  the  greater  part 
of  America  perceived  that  the  course  of  things  must  have 
led  to  this  extremity,  there  were  still  many  who  openly 
manifested  contrary  sentiments.  And  they  were,  un- 
fortunately, more  numerous  in  the  provinces  menaced 
by  Great  Britain  than  in  any  'other.  The  American 
armies  were  feeble,  the  treasury  poor,  foreign  succours 
uncertain,  and  the  ardour  of  the  people  might  abate  all 
at  once. 

It  was  known  that  England  was  determined  to  exert 
all  her  forces  for  the  reduction  of  the  colonies,  before 
they  should  have  time  to  become  confirmed  in  their  re- 
bellion, or  to  form  alliances  with  foreign  powers.  If 
the  American  arms,  as  there  was  but  too  much  reason 
to  fear,  should  prove  unfortunate  in  the  ensuing  cam- 
paign, it  could  not  be  disguised  that  the  people  would 
lay  it  to  the  charge  of  independence;  and  that,  accord- 
ing to  the  ordinary  operations  of  the  human  mind,  they 


OT    JEFFERSON.  5$ 

would  rapidly  retrogade  towards  the  opinions  they  had 
abjured.  When  despair  once  begins,  the  prostration 
of  energy  follows  as  its  immediate  consequence.  But 
the  war  was  inevitable,  all  arrangement  impossible, 
and  the  Congress  urged  by  necessity  to  take  a  decisive 
resolution.  On  every  side  they  saw  dangers,  but  they 
preferred  to  brave  them  for  the  attainment  of  a  deter- 
inmate  object,  rather  than  trust  any  longer  to  the  un- 
certain hope  of  the  repeal  of  the  laws  against  which 
they  were  in  arms. 

For  it  was  even  difficult  to  designate  which  of  these 
laws  were  to  be  revoked.  Some  desired  to  have  all 
those  repealed  which  had  been  passed  since  the  year 
1763;  others  only  proscribed  a  part  of  them;  and  there 
were  still  others  whom  a  total  abrogation  would  not 
have  satisfied,  and  who  wished  also  for  the  abolition 
xif  some  ancient  statutes.  In  the  heat  of  debates,  pro- 
positions had  been  advanced  to  which  it  was  impossi- 
ble that  Great  Britain  should  ever  consent.  Nor  can 
it  be  denied,  that  the  declaration  of  independence  was 
conformable  to  the  nature  of  things.  Circumstances 
would  not  have  endured  much  longer,  that  a  people 
like  that  of  America,  numerous,  wealthy,  warlike, 
and  accustomed  to  liberty,  should  depend  upon  ano- 
ther at  a  great  distance,  and  little  superiour  in  power. 
The  English  ministry  could  not  'shut  their  eyes  to  it ; 
and  such,  perhaps,  was  the  secret  reason  of  their  ob- 
duracy in  attempting  to  load  their  colonies  with  heavier 
chains.  It  is  also  certain,  that  foreign  princes  would 
not  have  consented  to  succour,  or  to  receive  into  their 
alliance,  a  people  who  acknowledged  themselves  the 
0ubjects ;  whereas  it  might  be  expected  that  they  would 
6 


54  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

unite  to  those  of  a  nation,  determined,  at  all  hazards, 
to  obtain  the  recognition  of  its  liberty  and  independ- 
ence. In  the  first  case,  even  victory  would  not  have 
given  allies  to  the  Americans;  in  the  second,  they 
were  assured  of  them  only  by  showing  themselves  re- 
solved to  sustain  their  cause  with  arms  in  hand. 

And  none  were  more  sensible  of  the  difficulties  and 
dangers  which  surrounded  them  than  the  heroick  men 
who  had  affixed  their  signatures,  either  to  their  coun- 
try's success,  or  their  own  destruction.  Dr.  Thacher, 
in  his  Military  Journal,  relates  a  circumstance  which 
may  show  the  acuteness  of  their  feelings,  though  dis- 
guised under  the  sportive  bitterness  of  raillery.  "  Mr. 
Harrison,  a  delegate  from  Virginia,"  writes  the  doc- 
tor,, "  is  a  large  portly  man.  Mr.  Gerry,  of  Massachu- 
setts, is  slender  and  spare.  A  little  time  after  the  sol- 
emn transaction  of  signing  the  instrument,  Mr.  Har- 
rison said  smilingly  to  Mr.  Gerry — '  when  the  hanging 
ssene  comes  to  be  exhibited,  I  shall  have  the  advantage 
over  you  on  account  of  my  size :  all  will  be  over  with 
me  in  a  moment,  but  you  will  be  kicking  in  the  air  a 
half  an  hour  after  I  am  gone.'  " 

But,  as  to  the  disposition  of  the  people  themselves, 
die  reception  given  to  this  celebrated  paper  on  its  pro- 
mulgation, must  have  justified  the  hopes  of  the  most 
ardent,  and  dispelled  the  fears  of  the  most  timid.  It 
was  every  where  hailed  with  joy,  gladness,  and  enthu- 
siasm ;  and  the  most  cautious,  if  they  allowed  the  cer- 
tainty of  an  impending  struggle,  admitted  its  necessity 
and  its  great  advantage.  Nor  were  there  any  of  those 
publick  demonstrations  omitted  which  governments 
ar#  accustomed  to  employ  on  similar  occasions,  to  con- 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSJDX.  55 

eiliate  the  favour  of  the  people  to  their  determination. 
Independence  was  proclaimed,  with  great  solemnity, 
at  Philadelphia,  the  8th  of  July.     The  artillery  was 
fired,  bonfires  were  kindled;  the  people  seemed  actu- 
ally delirious  with  exultation.     On  the  1 1th,  the  mani- 
festo of  Congress  was  published  in  New  York,  and 
was  read  to  each  brigade  of  the  American  army,  which, 
at  that  time,  was  assembled  in  the  vicinity  of  the  city : 
it  was  received  with  universal  acclamations.    The  same 
evening,  the  statue  of  King  George  III.,  which  had 
been  erected  in  1770,  was  taken  down,  and  dragged 
through   the   streets  by  the  sons  of  liberty.     It  was 
decided  that  the  lead  of  which  it  was  composed  should 
be   converted  into  musket  balls.     These  excesses,  if 
blameable  in  themselves,  were  not  without  utility  if 
considered  politically;    they  excited  the  people,  and 
hurried  them  on  to  the  object  that  Was  desired.     At 
Baltimore,  independence  having  been  proclaimed  in 
the  presence  of  cannoniers   and    militia,   the  people 
could  not  remain  their  enthusiasm.     The  air  resound- 
ed with  salutes  of  artillery,  and  the  shouts  that  hailed 
the  freedom  and   happiness   of  the  United  States   of 
America.     The  effigy  of  the  King  became  the  sport  of 
the  populace,  and  was  afterwards  burnt  in  the  publick 
square. 

But,  according  to  description,  and  the  concurrent 
testimony  of  Dr.  Thacher,  who  was  there  at-  the  time, 
the  rejoicings  at  Boston  were  the  greatest  of  all.  In- 
dependence was  there  proclaimed  from  the  balcony  of 
the  state  house,  in  the  presence  of  all  the  authorities, 
civil  and  military,  and  of  an  immense  concourse  of 
people,  as  well  from  the  city  itself,  as  from  the  country, 


r  LIPX    OF    JEFFERSOHT. 

The  garrison  was  drawn  up  in  order  of  battle  in  King" 
street,  which,  from  that  moment,  took  the  name  of 
State  street:  the  troops  formed  in  thirteen  detach- 
ments, to  denote  the  thirteen  United  States.  At  a  giver* 
signal,  a  salute  of  thirteen  cannon  was  fired  upon  Fort 
Hill,  which  was  immediately  answered  by  an-  equal 
number  from  the  batteries  of  the  Castle,  of  the  Neck, 
of  Nantasket,  and  of  Pbint  Alderton.  The  garrison, 
in  their  turn,  fired  thirteen  salutes  of  musketry,  each 
detachment  firing  in  succession.  The  authorities  and 
most  considerable  inhabitants  then  convened  at  a  ban- 
quet prepared  in  the  council  chamber,  where  they 
drank  toasts  to  the  perpetuity  and  prosperity  of  the 
United  States-,  to  the  American  Congress,  to  General 
Washington,  to  the  success  of  the  arms  of  the  con- 
federacy, to  the  destruction  of  tyrants,  to  the  propaga- 
tion of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  and  to  the  friends  of 
the  United  States  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  All  tho 
b«lU  rung  iu  token  of  felicitation ;  the  joy  was  univer- 
sal, and  its  demonstrations  were  incessantly  renewed. 
In  the  evening,  all  the  ensigns  of  royalty,  lions,  scep- 
tres or  crowns,  whether  sculptured  or  painted,  were 
torn  in  pieces,  and  burnt  in  State  street. 

But  in  Virginia,  according  to  a  celebrated  author,  it 
would  be  impossible  to  describe  the  exultation  that  was 
manifested. 

The  Virginia  Convention  decreed  that  the  name  of 
the  King  should  be  suppressed  in  all  the  publick  pray- 
ers. They  ordained  that  the  great  seal  of  the  com- 
monwealth of  Virginia  should  represent  Virtue  as  the- 
tutelary  genius  of  the  province,  robed  in  the  drapery  of 
an  amazon,  resting  one  hand  upon  her  lance,  and  hold- 


LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON.  5T 

ing  with  the  other  a  sword,  trampling  upon  tyranny, 
under  the  figure  of  a  prostrate  man,  having  near  him  a 
crown  fallen  from  his  heard,  and  bearing  in  one  hand 
a  broken  chain,  and  in  the  other  a  scourge.  At  the 
foot  was  charactered  the  word  "  Virginia,"  and  round 
the  effigy  of  Virtue,  was  inscribed,  "  Sic  semper  tyran- 
nis"  The  reverse  represented  a  group  of  figures ; 
in  the  middle  stood  Liberty,  with  her  wand  and  cap ; 
on  one  side  was  Ceres,  with  the  horn  of  plenty  in  the 
right  hand,  and  a  sheaf  of  wheat  in  the  left;  upon  the 
other  appeared  Eternity,  with  the  globe  and  the-phoe- 
nix.  At  the  foot  were  found  these  words,  "  Deus 
nobis  hcec  otia  fecit" 

In  the  midst  of  these  transports,  nothing  was  forgotten 
that  might  tend  to  inspire  the  people  with  affection  for 
the  new  order  of  things,  and  a  violent  hatred  not  only 
towards  tyranny,  but  also  against  monarchy ;  the  for- 
mer being  considered  as  the  natural  result  from  the 
latter. 

Thus,  on  the  one  hand,  the  American  patriots,  by 
their  secret  combinations,  and  then  by  a  daring  resolu- 
tion ;  and  on  the  other,  the  British  ministers,  at  first  by 
oppressive  laws,  and  afterwards  by  hesitating  counsels, 
gave  origin  to  a  crisis  which  eventually  produced  the 
dismemberment  of  a  splendid  and  powerful  empire. 
So  constant  are  men  in  the  pursuits  of  liberty,  and  so 
obstinate  in  ambition. 

Paul  Allen,  in  his  History  of  the  Revolution,  re- 
marks :  "  The  declaration  of  independence,  once  pub- 
lished to  the  world  with  such  solemnity,  gave  a  new 
character  to  the  contest,  not  only  in  the  colonies,  but  in 
Europe.  Before  this  decisive  step,  the  American  peo- 
6* 


LIFE  OF  JEFFERSOff. 

pie  were  regarded  by  many  able  and  good  men  as  weft 
as  sound  politicians,  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantick, 
rather  as  children  struggling  for  doubtful  privileges 
with  a  parent,  than  as  men  contending  with  men  for 
their  natural  and  undisputable  rights. 

But  this  deliberate  appeal  to  the  nations  of  the  earth, 
to  posterity,  and  to  the  God  of  battles,  gave  a  new  po- 
litical character,  an  immediate  dignity  and  manhood, 
to  their  cause.  It  was  no  longer  the  unholy  struggle 
of  subjects  against  their  monarch — of  children  against 
their  parent — of  rash  and  turbulent  men  who  never 
measure  nor  weigh  the  consequences  of  their  deeds  : 
it  was  no  longer  a  contest  for  mere  matters  of  opinion, 
but  for  a  national  existence — for  life  or  death.  It  be- 
came, under  the  awful  sanction  of  that  assembly,  the 
temperate  and  determined  stand  of  men  who  had  en- 
trenched themselves  within  the  certain  and  thoroughly 
understood  limits  of  their  rights — of  men  who  had 
counted  the  cost  dispassionately,  and  measured  the  event 
without  shrinking — of  men  who  felt,  deliberated,  and 
acted  as  the  representatives  of  a  whole  people,  conscious 
of  their  infirmities  and  their  responsibility,  knowing  the 
might  of  their  adversaries  and  the  weakness  o£  their 
friends,  but  determined  to  do  their  duty  to  their  children, 
and  leave  them  their  inheritance  undisturbed  and  unim- 
paired. Or  if  that  might  not  be,  and  the  liberties  of 
Englishmen  were  no  longer  the  protection  of  their 
wives  or  the  birthright  of  their  children,  to  leave  them 
as  widows  and  orphans  to  the  charity  of  Heaven." 

The  declaration  of  independence  was,  of  itself,  a 
rictory — a  victory  over  the  passions,  prejudices,  and 
fears  of  a  multitude.  It  drew  a  line  for  ever,  between 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON,  59 

the  friends  and  the  foes  of  America.  It  left  no  neu- 
trals. He  who  was  not  for  independence,  uncondition- 
al independence,  was  an  enemy.  The  efiect  produ- 
ced on  the  publick  mind  by  the  boldness  and  unanimity 
manifested  on  this  occasion  by  the  delegates  of  the 
several  colonies,  operated  on  the  general  confidence  of 
the  people  as  much  as  a  similar  declaration  would  have 
done,  had  it  been  adopted  and  signed  by  the  whole  pop- 
ulation of  the  states.  In  the  publick  exultation  at  the 
time,  the  murmurs  of  disapprobation  were  unheard* 
and  the  opposition  to  be  expected  from  the  discontented 
and  factious,  who  were  always  a  formidable  minority, 
and  in  the  very  bosom  of  the  country,  was  entirely 
overlooked. 


60  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 


CHAPTER  II. 

IT  is  one  of  the  inconsistencies  of  human  nature,  that 
the  British  parliament  should  claim  that  authority  over, 
and  impress  those  burdens  on  the  colonists,  against 
which,  when  applied  to  themselves,  they  had  murmur- 
ed, protested,  and  rebelled.  There  cannot  be  a  more 
striking  parallel,  than  between  the  English  revolution 
of  1 688,  and  the  North  American  revolution  of  1776.  In 
both  cases,  previous  discussion  had  fairly  put  the  dispu- 
ted question  in  issue ;  each  party  to  the  dispute  had  ful- 
ly weighed  and  settled  its  principles,  its  claims,  and  its 
duties ;  the  people  of  England  and  the  people  of  Amer- 
ica were  in  both  cases  on  the  defensive ;  not  aiming  at 
establishing  new  rights,  or  setting  up  new  pretensions 
against  old  established  despotism,  but  defending  against 
encroachment  on  liberties  which  they  had  always  en- 
joyed, and  seeking  new  guarantees  to  secure  them. — 
Broken  charters,  insulted  legislatures,  and  violated  ju- 
diciaries, arbitrary  acts  defended  by  arbitrary  princi- 
ples, and  injustice  supported  by  violence,  drove  the 
English  nation  in  1688,  and  the  English  colonies  in 
1776,  to  declare  that  the  respective  sovereigns  had  ab- 
dicated the  government. 

The  American  revolution  was  complete  20  1776,  but 
it  still  remained  to  defend  it  by  arms. 


LIFB    OF    JEFFERSON".  61 

On  Friday,  July  12.  1776,  the  committee  appointed  to 
draw  the  articles  of  confederation  between  the  thirteen 
states,  reported  them  to  Congress;  and  on  the  22d,  the 
house  resolved  themselves  into  a  committee  to  take  them 
into  consideration.  The  institution  of  new  govern- 
ment by  a  people  reeking  from  tyranny  and  oppression, 
is  a  sight,  which,  whilst  it  engages  the  solicitous  atten- 
tion of  the  patriot  and  philanthropist,  is  no  less  calcu- 
lated to  alarm  their  fears.  Smarting  from  their  wrongs, 
and  still  fresh  in  their  indignation,  it  is  to  be  apprehend- 
ed that  every  curb  of  restraint  will  be  removed,  and 
that  liberty  may  degenerate  into  violence  or  licentious- 
ness. The  French  revolution  reads  a  most  terrifick 
lesson  on  this  subject.  It  was  not  so  with  those  hero- 
ick  men  who  had  just  placed  their  hands  to  the  Decla- 
ration of  Independence ;  and  the  articles  of  confedera- 
tion, if  they  do  not  guard  against  every  evil,  or  provide 
for  every  future  contingency,  were  yet  the  result  of 
virtue  and  wisdom,  and  calculated  for  the  promotion 
of  rational  freedom.  The  notes  of  Mr.  Jefferson  con- 
tain the  earlier  debates  on  some  of  these  articles ;  and 
as  circumstances  connected  with  the  infant  government 
of  the  country,  and  as  displaying  the  powers  of  the 
most  prominent  men  in  it,  to  these  notes  we  shall  again 
have  reference.* 

On  the  30th  and  31st  of  that  month,  (July,)  and  1st 
of  the  ensuing,  those  articles  were  debated  which  de~ 

*  The  course  of  deliberation  was  conducted  with  profound 
eecrecy,  and  no  other  record  now  remains  of  that  wisdom  and 
intelligence,  of  that  capacious  and  accurate  view  of  political 
science  and  ethical  philosophy,  which  a  discussion  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  government  must  have  drawn  forth  from  the  accom,* 
plished  civilians  who  were  members  of  that  Congress. 


62  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

termined  the  proportion,  or  quota,  of  money  which  each 
state  should  furnish  to  the  common  treasury,  and  the 
manner  of  voting  in  Congress.  The  first  of  these  ar- 
ticles was  expressed  in  the  original  draught  in  these 
words:  "Art.  XL  All  charges  of  war,  and  all  other 
expenses  that  shall  be  incurred  for  the  common  defence, 
or  general  welfare,  and  allowed  hy  the  United  States 
assembled,  shall  be  defrayed  out  of  a  common  treasury, 
which  shall  be  supplied  by  the  several  colonies  in  pro- 
portion to  the  number  of  inhabitants  of  every  age,  sex, 
and  quality,  except  Indians  not  paying  taxes  in  each 
colony,  a  true  account  of  which,  distinguishing  the 
white  inhabitants,  shall  be  triennially  taken  and  trans- 
mitted to  the  Assembly  of  the  United  States." 

Mr.  Chase  moved  that  the  quotas  should  be  fixed, 
not  by  the  number  of  inhabitants  of  every  condition, 
but  by  that  of  the  white  inhabitants.  He  admitted  that 
taxation  should  be  always  in  proportion  to  property ; 
that  this  was,  in  theory,  the  true-rule ;  but  that,  from  a 
variety  of  difficulties,  it  was  a  rule  which  could  never 
be  adopted  in  practice.  The  value  of  the  property  in 
every  state,  could  never  be  estimated  justly  and  equally. 
Some  other  measures  for  the  wealth  of  the  state  must 
therefore  be  devised,  some  standard  referred  to,  which 
would  be  more  simple.  He  considered  the  number  of 
inhabitants  as  a  tolerably  good  criterion  of  property, 
and  that  this  might  always  be  obtained.  He  therefore 
thought  it  the  best  mode  which  we  could  adopt,  with 
one  exception  only:  he  observed  that  negroes  are  prop- 
erty, and,  as  such,  cannot  be  distinguished  from  the 
lands  or  personalities  held  in  those  states  where  there 
are  few  slaves ;  that  the  surplus  of  profit  which  a  north- 


LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON,  63 

era  farmer  is  able  to  lay  by,  he  invests  in  cattle,  horses, 
&c. :  whereas  a  southern  farmer  lays  out  the  same  sur- 
plus in  slaves.  There  is  no  more  reason,  therefore,  for 
taxing  the  southern  states  on  the  farmer's  head,  and  on 
his  slave's  head,  than  the  northern  states  on  their  farm- 
ers' heads  and  the  heads  of  their  cattle ;  that  the  method 
proposed  would,  therefore,  tax  the  southern  states  ac- 
cording to  their  numbers  and  their  wealth  conjunctly, 
while  the  northern  would  be  taxed  on  numbers  only  j 
that  negroes,  in  fact,  should  not  be  considered  as  mem- 
bers of  the  state  more  than  cattle,  and  that  they  have  no 
more  interest  in  it. 

Mr.  John  Adams  observed,  that  the  numbers  of  peo- 
ple were  taken  by  this  article  as  an  index  of  the  wealth 
of  the  state,  and  not  as  subjects  of  taxation ;  that,  as  to 
this  matter,  it  was  of  no  consequence  by  what  name 
you  called  your  people,  whether  by  that  of  freemen  or 
of  slaves ;  that  in  some  countries  the  labouring  poor 
were  called  freemen,  in  others  they  were  called  slaves ; 
but  that  the  difference  as  to  the  state  was  imaginary 
only.  What  matters  it  whether  a  landlord  employing 
ten  labourers  on  his  farm,  gives  them  annually  as  much 
money  as  will  buy  them  the  necessaries  of  life,  or 
gives  them  those  necessaries  at  shorthand.  The  ten 
labourers  add  as  much  wealth  annually  to  the  state, 
increase  its  exports  as  much,  in  the  one  case  as  the 
other.  Certainly  five  hundred  freemen  produce  no 
more  profits,  no  greater  surplus  for  the  payment  of  tax- 
es, than  five  hundred  slaves.  Therefore,  the  state  in 
which  are  the  labourers  called  freemen,  should  be  tax- 
ed no  more  than  that  in  which  are  those  called  slaves. 
Suppose,  by  an  extraordinary  operation  of  nature  or  of 


64  LITE    OT    JEFFERSON. 

law,  one  half  the  labourers  of  a  state  could,  in  the  course 
of  one  night,  be  transformed  into  slaves :  would  the  state 
be  made  the  poorer,  or  the  less  able  to  pay  taxes  ?— 
That  the  condition  of  the  labouring  poor  in  most  coun- 
tries, that  of  the  fishermen,  particularly  of  the  northern 
States,  is  as  abject  as  that  of  slaves.  It  is  the  number 
of  labourers  which  produces  the  surplus  for  taxation,  and 
numbers,  therefore,  indiscriminately,  are  the  fair  index 
of  wealth ;  that  it  is  the  use  of  the  word  property  here, 
and  its  application  to  some  of  the  people  of  the  state, 
which  produces  the  fallacy.  How  does  the  southern 
farmer  procure  slaves?  Either  by  importation  or  by 
purchase  from  his  neighbour.  If  he  imports  a  slave, 
he  adds  one  to  the  number  of  labourers  in  his  country, 
and  proportionably  to  its  profits  and  abilities  to  pay  tax- 
es;  if  he  buys  from  his  neighbour,  it  is  only  a  transfer 
of  a  labourer  from  one  farm  to  another,  which  does  not 
change  the  annual  produce  of  the  state,  and  therefore, 
should  not  change  its  tax ;  that  if  a  northern  farmer 
works  ten  labourers  on  his  farm,  he  can,  it  is  true,  in- 
vest the  surplus  of  ten  men's  labour  in  cattle ;  but  so 
may  the  southern  farmer,  working  ten  slaves ;  that  a 
state  of  one  hundred  thousand  freemen  can  maintain 
no  more  cattle  than  one  of  one  hundred  thousand 
slaves :  therefore,  they  have  no  more  of  that  kind  of 
property  •  that  a  slave  may,  indeed,  from  the  custom  of 
speech,  be  more  properly  called  the  wealth  of  his  mas- 
ter, (than  the  free  labourer  might  be  called  the  wealth 
of  his  employer ;  but  as  to  the  state,  both  were  equally 
its  wealth,  and  should,  therefore,  equally  add  to  the  quo- 
ta  of  its  tax. 

Mr.  Harrison  proposed,  as  a  compromise,  that  two 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  65 

slaves  should  be  counted  as  one  freeman.  He  affirm* 
ed  that  slaves  did  not  do  as  much  work  as  freemen^ 
and  doubted  if  two  effected  more  than  one;  that  this 
was  proved  by  the  price  of  labour :  the  hire  of  a  la- 
bourer in  the  southern  colonies  being  from  £8  to  £12, 
while  in  the  northern  it  was  generally  £24. 

Mr.  Wilson  said,  that  if  this  amendment  should  take 
place,  the  southern  colonies  would  have  all  the  bene- 
fit of  slaves,  whilst  the  northern  ones  would  bear  the 
burden ;  that  slaves  increase  the  profits  of  a  state,  which 
the  southern  states  mean  to  take  to  themselves ;  that 
they  also  increase  the  burden  of  defence,  which  would 
of  course  fall  so  much  the  heavier  on  the  northern;  that 
slaves  occupy  the  places  of  freemen  and  eat  their  food. 
Dismiss  your  slaves,  and  freemen  will  take  their  places. 
It  is  our  duty  to  lay  every  discouragement  on  the  im- 
portation of  slaves;  but  this  amendment  would  give  the 
jus  trium  liber  or  um  to  him  who  would  import  slaves ; 
that  other  kinds  of  property  were  pretty  equally  dis- 
tributed through  all  the  colonies :  there  were  as  many 
cattle,  horses,  and  sheep,  in  the  north  as  the  south,  and 
south  as  the  north,  but  not  so  as  to  slaves ;  that  expe- 
rience has  shown  that  those  colonies  have  been  always 
able  to  pay  most,  which  have  the  most  inhabitants, 
whether  they  be  black  or  white:  and  the  practice  of 
the  southern  colonies  has  always  been  to  make  every 
farmer  pay  poll  taxes  upon  all  his  labourers,  whether 
they  be  black  or  white.  He  acknowledges,  indeed, 
that  freemen  work  the  onost;  but  they  consume  the 
most  also.  They  do  not  produce  a  greater  surplus  for 
taxation.  The  slave  is  neither  fed  nor  clothed  so  ex- 
pensively as  a  freeman.  Again ;  white  women  are  ex- 
7 


66  LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON. 

empted  from  labour  generally,  but  negro  women  are  not, 
In  this,  then,  the  southern  states  have  an  advantage,  as 
the  article  now  stands.  It  has  sometimes  been  said 
that  slavery  is  necessary,  because  the  commodities  they 
raise  would  be  too  dear  for  market  if  cultivated  by  free- 
men :  but  now  it  is  said  that  the  labour  of  the  slave 
is  the  dearest. 

Mr.  Payne  urged  the  original  resolution  of  Con- 
gress, to  proportion  the  quotas  of  the  states  to  the  num- 
ber of  souls. 

Dr.  Witherspoon  was  of  opinion,  that  the  value  of 
lands  and  houses  was  the  best  estimate  of  the  wealth  of 
a  nation,  and  that  it  was  practicable  to  obtain  such  a 
valuation.  This  is  the  true  barometer  of  wealth.  The 
one  now  proposed  is  imperfect  in  itself  and  unequal 
between  the  states.  It  has  been  objected  that  negroes 
eat  the  food  of  freemen,  and  therefore  should  be  taxed ; 
horses  also  eat  the  food  of  freemen :  therefore  they 
also  should  be  taxed.  It  has  been  said,  too,  that  in 
carrying  slaves  into  the  estimate  of  the  taxes  the  state 
is  to  pay,  we  do  no  more  than  those  states  themselves 
do,  who  always  take  slaves  into  the  estimate  of  the 
taxes  the  individual  is  to  pay.  But  the  cases  are  not 
parallel.  In  the  southern  colonies,  slaves  pervade  the 
whole  colony  ;  but  they  do  not  pervade  the  whole 
continent.  That  as  to  the  original  resolution  of  Con- 
gress, to  proportion  the  quotas  according  to  the  souls, 
it  was  temporary  only,  and  related  to  the  moneys  here- 
tofore emitted ;  whereas  we  are  now  entering  into  a 
new  compact,  and  therefore  stand  on  original  ground. 

August  1.  The  question  being  put,  the  amendment 
proposed  was  rejected  by  the  votes  of  New  Hampshire, 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  67 

Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  New  York. 
New  Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania ;  against  those  of  Del- 
aware, Maryland,  Virginia,  North  and  South  Carolina. 
Georgia  was  divided. 

The  other  article  was  in  these  words  :  "  Art.  XVII. 
In  determining  questions,  each  colony  shall  have  one 
vote." 

July  30,  31,  August  1.  Present,  forty-one  members. 
Mr.  Chase  observed,  that  this  article  was  the  most 
likely  to  divide  us,  of  any  one  proposed  in  the  draught 
then  under  consideration ;  that  the  larger  colonies  had 
threatened  they  would  not  confederate  at  all,  if  their 
weight  in  Congress  should  not  be  equal  to  the  numbers 
of  people  they  added  to  the  confederacy;  while  the 
smaller  ones  declared  against  a  union,  if  they  did  not 
retain  an  equal  vote  for  the  protection  of  their  rights. 
That  it  was  of  the  utmost  consequence  to  bring  the 
parties  together,  as,  should  we  sever  from  each  other, 
either  no  foreign  power  will  ally  with  us  at  all,  or  the 
different  states  will  form  different  alliances,  and  thus 
increase  the  horrours  of  those  scenes  of  civil  war  and 
bloodshed,  which,  in  such  a  state  of  separation  and 
independence,  would  render  us  a  miserable  people. — 
That  our  importance,  our  interests,  our  peace,  required 
that  we  should  confederate,  and  that  mutual  sacrifices 
should  be  made  to  effect  a  compromise  of  this  difficult 
question.  He  was  of  opinion,  the  smaller  colonies 
would  lose  their  rights,  if  they  were  not,  in  some  in- 
stances, allowed  an  equal  vote ;  and  therefore  that  a 
discrimination  should  take  place  among  the  questions 
which  would  come  before  Congress.  That  the  smaller 
states  should  be  secured  in  all  questions  concerning 


68  LIFE    OF    JEFfERSON". 

life  or  liberty,  and  the  greater  ones  in  all  respecting 
property.  He  therefore  proposed,  that  in  votes  relating 
to  money,  the  voice  of  each  colony  should  be  propor- 
tioned to  the  number  of  its  inhabitants." 

Dr.  Franklin  thought,  that  the  votes  should  be  so 
proportioned  in  all  cases.  He  took  notice  that  the 
Delaware  counties  had  bound  up  their  delegates  to  dis- 
agree to  this  article.  He  thought  it  a  very  extraordi- 
nary language  to  be  held  by  any  state,  that  they  would 
not  confederate  with  us  unless  we  would  let  them  dis- 
pose of  our  money.  Certainly,  if  we  vote  equally,  we 
ought  to  pay  equally;  but  the  smaller  states  will  hard- 
ly purchase  the  privilege  at  this  price.  That  had  he 
lived  in  a  state  where  the  representation,  originally 
equal,  had  become  unequal  by  time  and  accident,  he 
might  have  submitted  rather  than  disturb  govern- 
ment ;  but  that  w^e  should  be  very  wrong  to  set  out  in 
this  practice,  when  it  is  in  our  power  to  establish  what 
is  right.  That  at  the  time  of  the  union  between  Eng- 
land and  Scotland,  the  latter  had  made-  the  objection 
which  the  smaller  states  now  do ;  but  experience  had 
proved  that  no  unfairness  had  ever  been  shown  them  ; 
that  their  advocates  had  prognosticated  that  it  would 
again  happen,  as  in  times  of  old,  that  the  whale  would 
swallow  Jonas,  but  he  thought  the  prediction  reversed 
in  event,  and  that  Jonas  had  swallowed  the  whale ;  for 
the  Scotch  had  in  fact  got  possession  of  the  govern- 
ment, and  gave  laws  to  the  English.  H-e  reprobated 
the  original  agreement  of  Congress  to  vote  by  colonies, 
and,  therefore,  was  for  their  voting,  in  all  cases,  accord- 
ing to  the  number  of  taxables. 

Dr.  Witherspoon  opposed  every  alteration  of  the 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  69 

article.  All  men  admit  that  a  confederacy  is  necessary. 
Should  the  idea  get  abroad  that  there  is  likely  to  be 
no  union  among  us,  it  will  damp  the  minds  of  the 
people,  diminish  the  glory  of  our  struggle,  and  lessen 
its  importance;  because  it  will  open  to  our  view  future 
prospects  of  war  and  dissension  among  ourselves.  If 
an  equal  vote  be  refused,  the  smaller  states  will  be- 
come vassals  to  the  larger;  and  all  experience  has 
shown,  that  the  vassals  and  subjects  of  free  states  are 
the  most  enslaved.  He  instanced  the  Helots  of  Sparta 
and  the  provinces  of  Rome.  He  observed  that  foreign 
powers,  discovering  this  blemish,  would  make  it  a  han- 
dle for  disengaging  the  smaller  states  from  so  unequal 
a  confederacy.  That  the  colonies  should,  in  fact,  be 
considered  as  individuals;  and  that,  as  such,  in  all 
disputes,  they  should  have  an  equal  vote ;  that  they  are 
now  collected  as  individuals  making  a  bargain  with 
each  other,  and,  of  course,  had  a  right  to  vote  as  indi- 
viduals. That  in  the  East  India  Company  they  voted 
by  persons,  and  not  by  their  proportion  of  stock.  That 
the  Belgick  confederacy  voted  by  provinces.  That  in 
questions  of  war,  the  smaller  states  were  as  much 
interested  as  the  larger,  and  therefore  should  vote 
equally ;  and  indeed,  that  the  larger  states  were  more 
likely  to  bring  war  on  the  confederacy  in  proportion  as 
their  frontiers  were  more  extensive.  He  admitted  that 
equality  of  representation  was  an  excellent  principle, 
but  then  it  must  be  of  things  which  are  co-ordinate ; 
that  is,  of  things  similar,  and  of  the  same  nature :  that 
nothing  relating  to  individuals  could  ever  come  before 
Congress :  nothing  but  what  would  respect  colonies. 
He  distinguished  between  an  incorporating  and  a 
7* 


70  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSOST. 

federal  union.  The  union  of  England  was  an  incor- 
porating one  :  yet  Scotland  had  suffered  by  that  union, 
for  that  its  inhabitants  were  drawn  from  it  by  the; 
hopes  of  places  and  employments ;  nor  was  it  an  in- 
stance of  equality  of  representation :  because,  while 
Scotland  was  allowed  nearly  a  thirteenth  of  representa- 
tion, they  were  to  pay  only  one  fortieth  of  the  land  tax. 
He  expressed  his  hopes,  that  in  the  present  enlight- 
ened state  of  men's  minds,  we  might  expect  a  lasting 
confederacy,  if  it  was  founded  on  fair  principles. 

John  Adams  advocated  the  voting  in  proportion  to 
numbers.  He  said,  that  we  stand  here  as  the  repre- 
sentatives of  the  people ;  that  in  some  states  the  people 
are  many,  in  others  they  are  few;  that,  therefore,  their 
vote  here  should  be  proportioned  to  the  numbers  from 
whom  it  comes.  Reason,  justice,  and  equity,  never 
had  weight  enough  on  the  face  of  the  earth  to  govern 
the  councils  of  men.  It  is  interest  alone  which  doe» 
it,  and  it  is  interest  alone  which  can  be  trusted  ;  that, 
therefore,  the  interests  within  doors  should  be  the 
mathematical  representatives  of  the  interests  without 
doors;  that  the  individuality  of  the  colonies  is  a  mere 
sound.  Does  the  individuality  of  a  colony  increase 
its  wealth  or  numbers  ?  If  it  does,  pay  equally.  If 
it  does  not  add  weight  in  the  scale  of  the  confederacy, 
it  cannot  add  to  their  rights  nor  weigh  in  argument, 
A.  has  £50,  B.  £500,  and  C.  £1000  in  partnership. 
Is  it  just  they  should  equally  dispose  of  the  moneys  of 
the  partnership  ?  It  has  been  said  we  are  independent 
individuals,  making  a  bargain  together :  the  question 
is  not,  what  we  are  now,  but  what  we  ought  to  be 
when  our  bargain  shall  be  made.  The  confederacy  ia 


LIFE  OF  JEFFERSOK,  71 

to  make  us  one  individual  only :  it  is  to  form  us,  like 
separate  parcels  of  metal,  into  one  common  mass.  W& 
shall  no  longer  retain  our  separate  individuality,  but 
become  a  single  individual  as  to  all  questions  submit- 
ted to  the  confederacy.  Therefore,  all  those  reasons 
which  prove  the  justice  and  expediency  of  equal  repre- 
sentation in  other  assemblies,  hold  good  here.  It  has 
been*  objected,  that  a  proportionable  vote  will  endanger 
the  smaller  states.  We  answer,  that  an  equal  vote  will 
endanger  the  larger.  Virginia,  Pennsylvania,  and 
Massachusetts,  are  the  three  greater  colonies.  Con- 
sider their  distance,  their  difference  of  produce,  of  in- 
terests, and  of  manners,  and  it  is  apparent  they  can 
never  have  an  interest  or  inclination  to  combine  for 
the  oppression  of  the  smaller ;  that  the  smaller  will 
naturally  divide  on  all  questions  with  the  larger. — 
Rhode  Island,  from  its  relation,  similarity,  and  inter- 
course, will  generally  pursue  the  same  objects  with 
Massachusetts ;  Jersey,  Delaware,  and  Maryland,  with 
Pennsylvania. 

Dr.  Rush  took  notice,  that  the  decay  of  the  liberties 
of  the  Dutch  republick  proceeded  from  three  causes : 

1.  the  perfect  unanimity  requisite   on  all  occasions; 

2.  their   obligation   to    consult   their   constituents;  3.. 
their  voting   by  provinces.     This  last  destroyed  the 
equality  of  representation,  and  the  liberties  of  Great 
Britain  also  are  sinking  from  the  same  defect.     That 
a  part  of  our  rights  is  deposited  in  the  hands  of  our 
legislatures.     There,  it  was  admitted,  there  should  be 
an  equality  of  representation.      Another  part  of  our 
rights  is  deposited  in  the  hands  of  Congress ;  why  is  it 
not  equally  necessary,  there  should  be  an  equal  repre- 


72  LIFE  0¥  JEFFERSON. 

sentation  there  ?  Were  it  possible  to  collect  the  whole 
body  of  the  people  together,  they  would  determine  the 
questions  submitted  to  them  by  their  majority.  Why 
should  not  the  same  majority  decide  when  voting  here, 
by  their  representatives  ?  The  larger  colonies  are  so 
providentially  divided  in  situation,  as  to  render  every 
fear  of  their  combining  visionary.  Their  interests 
are  different,  and  their  circumstances  dissimilar.  It  is 
more  probable  they  will  become  rivals,  and  leave  it  in 
the  power  of  the  smaller  states  to  give  preponderance 
to  any  scale  they  please.  The  voting  by  the  number 
of  free  inhabitants,  will  have  one  excellent  effect,  that 
of  inducing  the  colonies  to  discourage  slavery,  and  to 
encourage  the  increase  of  their  free  inhabitants. 

Mr.  Hopkins  observed,  that  there  were  four  larger, 
four  smaller,  and  four  middle-sized  colonies.  That 
the  four  largest  would  contain  more  than  half  the 
inhabitants  of  the  confederating  states,  and  therefore 
would  govern  the  others  as  they  should  please.  That 
history  affords  no  instance  of  such  a  thing  as  equal 
representation.  The  Germanick  body  votes  by  states. 
The  Helvetick  body  does  the  same ;  and  so  does  the 
Belgick  confederacy.  That  too  little  is  known  of  the 
ancient  confederations,  to  say  what  was  their  practice. 

Mr.  Wilson  thought,  that  taxation  should  be  in  pro- 
portion to  wealth,  but  that  representation  should  accord 
with  the  number  of  freemen.  That  government  is  a 
collection  or  result  of  the  wills  of  all ;  that  if  any 
government  could  speak  the  will  of  all,  it  would  be 
perfect ;  and  that  so  far  as  it  departs  from  this,  it  be- 
«omes  imperfect.  It  has  been  said,  that  Congress  is  a 
representation  of  states,  not  of  individuals.  I  say,  that 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  73 

the  objects  of  its  care  are  all  the  individuals  of  the 
states.  It  is  strange,  that  annexing  the  name  of  'state' 
to  ten  thousand  men,  should  give  them  an  equal  right 
with  forty  thousand.  This  must  be  the  effect  of  ma- 
gick,  not  of  reason.  As  to  those  matters  which  are 
referred  to  Congress,  we  are  not  so  many  states;  we 
are  one  large  state.  We  lay  aside  our  individuality 
whenever  we  come  here.  The  Germanick  body  is  a 
burlesque  on  government :  and  their  practice  on  any 
point,  is  a  sufficient  authority  and  proof  that  it  is  wrong. 
The  greatest  imperfection  in  the  constitution  of  the 
Belgick  confederacy  is  their  voting  by  provinces. — 
The  interest  of  the  whole  is  constantly  sacrificed  to 
that  of  the  small  states.  The  history  of  the  war  in  the 
reign  of  Queen  Ann,  sufficiently  proves  this.  It  is 
asked,  shall  nine  colonies  put  it  into  the  power  of  four 
to  govern  them  as  they  please  ?  I  invert,  the  question, 
and  ask,  shall  two  millions  of  people  put  it  into  the 
power  of  one  million  to  govern  them  as  they  please? 
It  is  pretended,  too,  that  the  smaller  colonies  will  be  in 
danger  from  the  greater.  Speak  in  honest  language 
and  say,  the  minority  will  be  in  danger  from  the  ma- 
jority. And  is  there  an  assembly  on  earth,  where  this 
danger  may  not  be  equally  pretended  ?  The  truth  is, 
that  our  proceedings  will  then  be  consentaneous  with  the 
interests  of  the  majority,  and  so  they  ought  to  be. 
The  probability  is  much  greater,  that  the  larger  states 
will  disagree,  than  that  they  will  combine.  I  defy 
the  wit  of  man  to  invent  a  possible  case,  or  to  suggest 
any  one  thing  on  earth,  which  shall  be  for  the  interests 
of  Virginia,  Pennsylvania,  and  Massachusetts,  and 


74  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

which  will  not  also  be  for  the  interests  of  the  other 
states. 

These  articles,  reported  July  12,  '76,  were  debated 
from  day  to  day  and  time  to  time,  for  two  years,  and  were 
ratified  July  9,  '78,  by  ten  states,  by  New  Jersey  on 
the  26th  of  November  of  the  same  year,  and  by  Del- 
aware on  the  23d  of  February  following.  Maryland 
alone  held  off  two  years  more,  acceding  to  them  March 
1,  '81,  and  thus  closing  the  obligation. 

Our  delegation,  says  Mr.  Jefferson,  had  been  renew- 
ed for  the  ensuing  year,  commencing  August  11;  but 
the  new  government  was  now  organized,  a  meeting  of 
the  legislature  was  to  be  held  in  October,  and  I  had 
been  elected  a  member  by  my  county.  I  knew  that 
our  legislation  under  the  regal  government  had  many 
very  vicious  points  which  urgently  required  reforma- 
tion, and  I  thought  I  could  be  of  more  use  in  forward- 
ing that  work.  I  therefore  retired  from  my  seat  in 
Congress  on  the  2d  of  September,  resigned  it,  and 
took  my  place  in  the  legislature  of  my  state  on  the 
7th  of  October. 

In  this  situation  he  was  indefatigable  in  his  labours 
to  improve  the  imperfect  constitution  of  the  state,  which 
had  been  recently  and  hastily  adopted  before  a  draught 
of  one,  which  he  had  formed  on  the  purest  principles 
of  republicanism,  had  reached  the  Convention,  which 
was  deliberating  at  Richmond.  This  Convention  was 
no  sooner  assembled  than  they  had  immediately  pro- 
ceeded to  the  formation  of  a  new  plan  of  government; 
and,  with  a  haste  which  abandoned  all  discretion,  a 
constitution  was  adopted  in  the  succeeding  month. 
Mr.  Jefferson  was  at  this  time  absent  in  Philadelphia, 


LIFE  OF  JEFFERSOX.  75 

as  a  delegate  to  Congress ;  but  he  had,  for  a  long  time 
previous,  devoted  unmitigated  reflection  and  research 
to  maturing  a  plan  for  a  new  government,  and  had 
already  formed  one  well  adapted  to  all  the  wants  and 
privileges  of  democratick  freemen.  This  draught  was 
transmitted  by  him  to  the  Convention;  but  unfortu- 
nately, the  one  that  they  had  framed,  had  received  a 
final  vote  in  its  favour  on  the  day  Mr.  Jefferson's  reach- 
ed its  destination.  The  debate  had  already  been  ardent 
and  protracted,  the  members  were  wearied  and  exhaust- 
ed, and  after  making  a  few  alterations,  and  adopting 
entire  the  masterly  preamble  which  Mr.  Jefferson  had 
prefixed,  it  was  thought  expedient,  for  the  present,  to 
adhere  to  the  original  plan,  imperfect  as  on  all  hands 
it  was  acknowledged  to  be. 

The  extremes  of  right  and  wrong  are  said  very 
closely  to  approach  each  other;  and,  according  to  a 
discriminating  writer,  an  incident  in  the  political  his- 
tory of  Virginia  does  not  invalidate  the  maxim.  In 
June,  a  constitution  had  been  adopted,  breathing  in 
every  article  the  most  vehement  spirit  of  equal  rights, 
and  established  on  the  downfall  of  arbitrary  rule.  No 
later  than  the  following  December,  a  serious  proposi- 
tion was  made  to  establish  a  Dictator,  "  invested  with 
every  power,  legislative,  executive,  and  judiciary,  civil 
and  military,  of  life  and  of  death,  over  our  persons 
and  over  our  properties."  To  the  wise  and  good  of 
every  party,  to  the  patriot  and  philanthropist,  such  a 
scheme  could  not  but  appear  as  absurd  as  its  success 
would  be  tyrannical  and  awfully  dangerous.  In  Mr. 
Jefferson  it  found  a  ready  and  efficient  opponent  at  the 


76  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

lime,  and  he  has  devoted  to  its  consideration  and  cen- 
sure, a  few  pages  of  his  later  works. 

But  the  chief  service  which  Mr.  Jefferson  performed 
as  a  member  of  the  legislature,  was  as  one  of  a  com- 
mission for  revising  the  laws,  consisting,  besides  him- 
self, of  Edmund  Pendleton,  George  Wythe,  George 
Mason,  and  Thomas  Ludwell  Lee,  by  whom  no  less 
than  one  hundred  and  twenty-six  bills  were  prepared, 
from  which  are  derived  all  the  most  liberal  features  of 
the  existing  laws  of  the  commonwealth.  The  share 
of  Mr.  Jefferson  in  this  great  task  was  prominent  and 
laborious.  To  him  Virginia  is  indebted  for  the  laws 
prohibiting  the  future  importation  of  slaves ;  convert- 
ing estates  tail  into  fee  simple ;  annulling  the  rights 
of  primogeniture ;  establishing  schools  for  general-ed- 
ucation ;  sanctioning  the  right  of  expatriation,  and 
confirming  the  rights  of  freedom  in  religious  opinion ; 
which  were  all  introduced  by  him,  and  were  adopted  at 
the  time  they  were  first  proposed,  or  at  a  subsequent  pe- 
riod ;  and  in  addition  to  these,  he  brought  forward  a 
law  proportioning  crimes  and  punishments,  which  was 
afler wards  passed  under  a  different  modification. 

His  own  account  of  the  passage  of  some  of  these 
laws,  the  evils  they  were  intended  to  remedy,  and  the 
opposition  they  overcame,  must  be  gratifying  to  those 
who  are  concerned  in  the  fame  of  their  author.  We 
have  his  own  description.  First,  in  relation  to  the  law 
declaring  tenants  in  tail  to  hold  in  fee  simple.  "In 
the  earlier  times  of  the  colony,"  he  informs  us,  "  when 
lands  were  to  be  obtained  for  little  or  nothing,  some 
provident  individuals  procured  large  grants;  and  de- 
sirous of  founding  great  families  for  themselves,  settled 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  7Y 

on  their  descendants  in  fee  tail.  The  transmis- 
sion of  this  property  from  generation  to  generation,  in 
ihe  same  name,  raised  up  a  distinct  set  of  families,  who, 
being  privileged  by  law  in  the  perpetuation  of  their 
wealth,  were  thus  formed  into  a  Patrician  order,  dis- 
tinguished by  the  splendour  and  luxury  of  their  estab- 
lishments. From  this  order,  too,  the  King  habitually 
selected  his  counsellors  of  state;  the  hope  of  which 
distinction  devoted  the  whole  corps  to  the  interests  and 
will  of  the  crown.  To  annul  this  privilege,  and  in- 
stead of  an  aristocracy  of  wealth,  of  more  har-m  and 
danger  than  benefit  to  society,  to  make  an  opening  for 
the  aristocracy  of  virtue  and  talent,  which  nature  has 
wisely  provided  for  the  direction  of  the  interests  of  so- 
ciety, and  scattered  with  equal  hand  through  all  its  con- 
ditions, was  deemed  essential  to  a  well  ordered  repub- 
lick.  To  effect  it,  no  violence  was  necessary,  no  de- 
privation of  natural  right,  but  rather  an  enlargement 
of  it  by  a  repeal  of  the  law.  For  this  would  author- 
ize the  present  holder  to  divide  the  property  among 
his  children  equally,  as  his  affections  were  divided; 
and  would  place  them,  by  natural  generation,  on  the 
level  of  their  fellow  citizens.  But  this  repeal  was 
strongly  opposed  by  Mr.  Pendleton,  who  was  zealous- 
ly attached  to  ancient  establishments ;  and  who,  taken 
all  in  all,  was  the  ablest  man  in  debate  1  have  ever 
met  with.  He  had  not,  indeed,  the  poetical  fancy 
of  Mr.  Henry,  his  sublime  imagination,  his  lofty  and 
overwhelming  diction ;  but  he  was  cool,  smooth,  and 
persuasive ;  his  language  flowing,  chaste,  and  embel- 
lished; his  conceptions  quick,  acute,  and  full  of  re- 
source ;  never  vanquished ;  for  if  he  lost  the  main  bat- 
8 


78  LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON. 

tie,  he  returned  upon  you,  and  regained  so  much  of  it 
as  to  make  it  a  drawn  one,  by  dexterous  manoeuvres, 
skirmishes  in  detail,  and  the  recovery  of  small  advan- 
tages, which,  little  singly,  were  important  all  together. 
You  never  knew  when  you  were  clear  of  him,  but  were 
harassed  by  his  perseverance,  until  the  patience  was 
worn  down  of  all  who  had  less  of  it  than  himself. — 
Add  to  this,  that  he  was  one  of  the  most  virtuous  and 
benevolent  of  men,  the  kindest  friend,  the  most  amiable 
and  pleasant  of  companions,  which  ensured  a  favoura- 
ble reception  to  whatever  came  from  him.  Finding 
that  the  general  principle  of  entails  could  not  be  main- 
tained, he  took  his  stand  on  an  amendment  which  he 
proposed,  instead  of  an  absolute  abolition,  to  permit  the 
tenant  in  tail  to  convey  in  fee  simple,  if  he  chose  it : 
and  he  was  within  a  few  votes  of  saving  so  much  of 
the  old  law.  But  the  bill  passed  finally  for  entire  aboli- 
tion. 

"  In  that  one  of  the  bills  for  organizing  our  judiciary 
system  which  proposed  a  court  of  chancery,  I  had  pro- 
vided for  a  trial  by  jury  of  all  matters  of  fact,  in  that  as 
well  as  in  the  courts  of  law.  He  defeated  it  by  the  in- 
troduction of  four  words  only — if  either  party  choose j 
The  consequence  has  been,  that  as  no  suitor  will  say 
to  his  judge — Sir,  I  distrust  you,  give  me  a  jury — 
juries  are  rarely,  I  might  say  perhaps  never,  seen  in 
that  court,  but  when  called  for  by  the  Chancellor  of 
his  own  accord." 

As  it  respects  the  prohibiting  the  future  importation 

of  slaves,  he  continues :     "  The  first  establishment  in 

Virginia,  which  became  permanent,  was  made  in  1607. 

have  found  no  mention  of  negroes  in  the  colony  un- 


LIFE    OF   JEFFERSON.  79 

til  about  1650.  The  first  brought  here  as  slaves,  were 
by  a  Dutch  ship ;  after  which,  the  English  commenced 
the  trade,  and  continued  it  until  the  revolutionary  war. 
That  suspended,  ipso  facto,  their  further  importation 
for  the  present,  and  the  business  of  the  war  pressing 
constantly  on  the  legislature,  this  subject  was  not  acted 
on  finally  until  the  year  '78,  when  I  brought  in  a  bill 
to  prevent  their  further  importation.  This  passed 
without  opposition,  and  stopped  the  increase  of  the 
evil  by  importation,  leaving  to  future  efforts  its  final 
eradication." 

As  it  regards  the  free  exercise  of  opinion  in  matters 
of  religion,  he  remarks :  "  The  first  settlers  of  this 
colony  were  Englishmen,  loyal  subjects  to  their  King 
and  church ;  and  the  grant  to  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  con- 
tained an  express  proviso,  that  their  laws  should  not  be 
against  the  true  Christian  faith,  now  professed  in  the 
church  of  England.  As  soon  as  the  state  of  the  colo- 
ny admitted,  it  was  divided  into  parishes,  in  each  of 
which  was  established  a  minister  of  the  Anglican 
church,  endowed  with  a  fixed  salary,  in  tobacco,  a 
glebe  house  and  land,  with  the  other  necessary  appen- 
dages. To  meet  these  expenses,  all  the  inhabitants  of 
the  parishes  were  assessed,  whether  they  were  or  not 
members  of  the  established  church.  Towards  Qua- 
kers, who  came  here,  they  were  most  cruelly  intole- 
rant, driving  them  from  the  colony  by  the  severest 
penalties.  In  process  of  time,  however,  other  secta- 
risms  were  introduced,  chiefly  of  the  Presbyterian  fam- 
ily; and  the  established  clergy,  secure  for  life  in  their 
glebes  and  salaries,  adding  to  these,  generally,  the 
emoluments  of  a  classical  school,  found  employment 


80  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

enough  in  their  farms  and  school-rooms  for  the  rest  of 
the  week,  and  devoted  Sunday  only  to  the  edification  of 
their  flock,  by  service,  and  a  sermon  at  their  parish 
•hurch.  Their  other  pastoral  functions  were  little  at- 
tended to.  Against  this  inactivity,  the  zeal  and  indus- 
try of  sectarian  preachers  had  an  open  and  undisputed 
field ;  and  by  the  time  of  the  revolution,  a  majority  of 
the  inhabitants  had  become  dissenters  from  the  estab- 
lished church,  but  were  still  obliged  to  pay  contribu- 
tions to  support  the  pastors  of  the  minority.  This  un- 
righteous compulsion  to  maintain  teachers  of  what  they 
deemed  religious  errours,  was  grievously  felt  dtiring 
the  regal  government,  and  without  a  hope  of  relief. 
But  the  first  republican  legislature,  which  met  in  '76, 
was  crowded  with  petitions  to  abolish  this  spiritual  tyr- 
anny. These  brought  on  the  severest  contests  in 
which  I  have  ever  been  engaged.  Our  great  oppo- 
nents were  Mr.  Pendleton  and  Robert  Carter  Nicho- 
las :  honest  men,  but  zealous  churchmen.  The  peti- 
tions were  referjed  to  the  committee  of  the  whole  house 
on  the  state  of  the  country ;  and,  after  desperate  con- 
tests in  that  committee,,  almost  daily,  from  the  1 1th  of 
October  to  the  5th  of  December,  we  prevailed  so  far 
only  as  to  repeal  the  laws  which  rendered  criminal  the 
maintenance  of  any  religious  opinions,  the  forbearance 
of  repairing  to  church,  or  the  exercise  of  any  mode  of 
worship :  and  further,  to  exempt  dissenters  from  con- 
tributions to  the  support  of  the  established  church ;  and 
to  suspend,  only  until  the  next  session,  levies  on  the 
members  of  the  church  for  the  salaries  of  their  own 
incumbents.  For  although  the  majority  of  our  cit- 
izens were  dissenters,  as  has  been  observed,  a  majority 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  81 

of  the  legislature  were  churchmen.  Among  these, 
however,  were  some  reasonable  and  liberal  men,  who 
enabled  us,  on  some  points,  to  obtain  feeble  majorities. 
But  our  opponents  carried,  in  the  general  resolutions  of 
the  committee  of  November  19,  a  declaration,  that  re- 
ligious assemblies  ought  to  be  regulated,  and  that  pro- 
vision ought  to  be  made  for  continuing  the  succession 
of  the  clergy,  and  superintending  their  conduct.  And 
in  the  bill  now  passed,  was  inserted  an  express  reser- 
vation of  the  question,  Whether  a  general  assessment 
should  not  be  established  by  law,  on  every  one,  to  the 
support  of  the  pastor  of  his  choice ;  or  whether  all 
should  be  left  to  voluntary  contributions :  and  on  this 
question,  debated  at  every  session  from  '76  to  79,  (some 
of  our  dissenting  allies,  having  now  secured  their  par- 
ticular object,  going  over  to  the  advocates  of  a  general 
assessment,)  we  could  only  obtain  a  suspension  from 
session  to  session  until  '79,  when  the  question  against 
a  general  assessment  was  finally  carried,  and  the  es- 
tablishment of  the  Anglican  church  entirely  put  down. 
In  justice  to  the  two  honest  but  zealous  opponents 
whom  I  have  named,  I  must  add,  that  although,  from 
their  natural  temperaments,  they  were  more  disposed 
generally  to  acquiesce  in  things  as  they  are,  than  to  risk 
innovations ;  yet,  whenever  the  publick  will  had  once 
decided,  none  were  more  faithful  or  exact  in  their  obedi- 
ence to  it." 

Early  in  the  session  of  May,  '79,  Mr.  Jefferson  pre- 
pared and  obtained  leave  to  bring  in  a  bill,  declaring 
who  should  be  deemed  citizens,  asserting  the  natural 
right  of  expatriation,  and  prescribing  the  mode  of  ex- 
ercising it.  This,  when  he  withdrew  from  the  house 
8* 


_,: 

8£  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

on  the  1st  of  June  following,  he  left  in  the  hands  of 
George  Mason,  and  it  was  passed  on  the  26th  of  that 
month. 

Of  this  gentleman  Mr.  Jefferson  speaks  in  the  high- 
est terms ;  describing  him  as  "  a  man  of  the  first  order 
of  wisdom  among  those  who  acted  on  the  theatre  of 
the  revolution,  of  expansive  mind,  profound  judgement, 
cogent  in  argument,  learned  in  the  lore  of  our  former 
constitution,  and  earnest  for  the  republican  change, 
on  dernocratick  principles.  His  elocution  was  neither 
flowing  nor  smooth ;  but  his  language  was  strong,  his 
manner  most  impressive,  and  strengthened  by  a  dash 
of  biting  cynicism,  when  provocation  made  it  season- 
able." 

After  reading  the  above,  let  it  be  decided  whether 
Jefferson  deserved  the  epithets  bestowed  upon  him  in 
days  of  party  bitterness,  as  being  a  visionary  enthusi- 
ast, or  whether  he  is  more  worthy  of  being  considered 
ag  an  ardent  friend  of  rational  freedom,  and  an  able 
and  enlightened  legislator. 

Mr.  Jefferson's  estimate  of  the  powers  of  Mr.  Mad- 
ison, and  his  opinion  of  his  character,  are  also  so  just, 
so  true,  and  so  honourable  to  both,  that  we  present  them 
to  the  reader.  "  Mr.  Madison,"  says  his  friend  and 
admirer,  "came  into  the  House  in  1776,  a  new  mem- 
ber, and  young ;  which  circumstances,  concurring  with 
his  extreme  modesty,  prevented  his  venturing  himself 
in  debate  before  his  removal  to  the  Council  of  State, 
in  November,  '77.  From  thence  he  went  to  Congress, 
then  consisting  of  few  members.  Trained  in  these 
•nccessive  schools,  he  acquired  a  habit  of  self-posses- 
sion, which  placed  at  ready  command  the  rich  resour- 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  81 

ces  of  his  luminous  and  discriminating  mind,  and  of 
his  extensive  information,  and  rendered  him  the  first 
of  every  assembly  afterwards  of  which  he  became  a 
member.     Never  wandering  from  his  subject  into  vain 
declamation,  but  pursuing  it  closely,  in  language  pure, 
classical,  and  copious,  soothing  always  the  feelings  of 
his  adversaries  by  civilities  and  softness  of  expression, 
he  rose  to  the  eminent  station  which  he. held  in  the  great 
National  Convention  of  1787  ;  and  in  that  of  Virgin- 
ia, which  followed,  he  sustained  the  new  constitution 
in  all  its  parts,  bearing  off  the  palm  against  the  logick 
of  George  Mason,  and  the  fervid  declamation  of  Mr. 
Henry.     With  these  consummate  powers,  was  united 
a  pure  and  spotless  virtue,  which  no  calumny  has  ever 
attempted  to  sully.      Of  the  powers  and  polish  of  his 
pen,  and  of  the  wisdom  of  his  administration  in  the 
highest  office  of  the  nation,  I  need  say  nothing.     They 
have  spoken,  and  will  for  ever  speak  for  themselves." 
Certainly,  such  eulogy,  and  from  such  a  pen,  is  suffi- 
cient recompense  for  a  life  well  spent. 

While  on  this  subject,  and  as  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Jef- 
ferson is  of  so  great  weight  as  to  guide  the  faith  of 
thousands,  we  subjoin  his  account  of  three  others,  not 
only  prominent  men  in  Congress,  but  the  most  zealous 
and  active  supporters  of  the  rights  of  their  country, 
both  before  and  during  the  revolutionary  struggle. — 
His  sentiments  are  the  result  of  personal  and  frequent 
observation,  and  are  delivered  with  a  candour  which, 
could  "  bear  a  rival  near  the  throne." 

"  Dr.  FRANKLIN  had  many  political  enemies,  as 
every  character  must,  which,  with  decision  enough  to 
have  opinions,  has  energy  and  talent  to  give  them  e£- 


84  LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON. 

feet  on  the  feelings  of  those  of  the  adversary  opinion. 
These  enmities  were  chiefly  in  Pennsylvania  and  Mas- 
sachusetts. In  the  former,  they  were  merely  of  the 
proprietary  party;  in  the  latter,  they  did  not  commence 
till  the  revolution,  and  then  sprung  chiefly  from  per- 
sonal animosities,  which  spreading  by  little  and  little, 
became,  at  length,  of  some  extent.  As  to  the  charge 
of  subservience  to  France,  besides  the  evidence  of  his 
friendly  colleagues,  two  years  of  my  own  service  with 
him  at  Paris,  daily  visits,  and  the  most  friehdly  and 
confidential  communications,  convince  me  it  had  not 
a  shadow  of  foundation.  He  possessed  the  confidence 
of  that  government  in  the^  highest  degree,  insomuch, 
that  it  may  truly  be  said,  that  they  were  more  under 
his  influence,  than  he  under  theirs.  The  fact  is,  that 
his  temper  was  •  so  amiable  and  conciliatory,  his  con- 
duct so  rational,  never  urging  impossibilities  or  even 
things  unreasonably  inconvenient  to  them;  in  short, 
so  moderate  and  attentive  to  their  difficulties  as  well 
as  our  own,  that  what  his  enemies  call  subserviency, 
I  saw  was  only  that  reasonable  disposition,  which,  sen- 
sible that  advantages  are  not  all  to  be  on  one  side, 
yielding  what  is  just  and  reasonable,  is  the  more  cer- 
tain of  obtaining  liberality  and  justice.  Mutual  confi- 
dence produces,  of  course,  mutual  influence ;  and  this 
was  all  which  subsisted  between  Dr.  Franklin  and  the 
government  of  France. 

"Of  SAMUEL  ADAMS,  I  can  say  that  he  was  truly  a 
great  man ;  wise  in  council,  fertile  in  resources,  im- 
moveable  in  his  purposes,  and  had,  I  think,  a  greater 
share  than  any  other  member  in  advising  and  direct- 
ing our  measures  in  the  northern  war.  As  a  speaker, 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  85> 

he  could  not  be  compared  with  his  living  colleague  and 
namesake,  whose  deep  conceptions,  nervous  style,  and 
undaunted  firmness,  made  him  truly  our  bulwark  in 
debate.  But  Mr.  Samuel  Adams,  although  not  ef 
fluent  elocution,  was  so  rigorously  logical,  so  clear  in 
his  views,  abundant  in  good  sense,  and  master  always 
of  his  subject,  that  he  commanded  the  most  profound 
attention  whenever  he  rose  in  an  assembly,  by  which 
the  froth  of  declamation  was  heard  with  the  most  sove- 
reign contempt. 

"You  know  the  opinion  I  formerly  entertained  of  my 
friend,  Mr.  JOHN  ADAMS.  I  afterwards  saw  proofs 
which  convicted  him  of  a  degree  of  vanity  and  of  a 
blindness  to  it  of  which  no  germe  then  appeared.  He 
is  vain,  irritable,  and  a  bad  calculator  of  the  force  and 
probable  effect  of  the  motives  which  govern  men. — 
This  is  all  the  ill  which  can  possibly  be  said  of  him. 
He  is  as  disinterested  as  the  Being  who  made  him ;  he 
is  profound  in  his  views,  and  accurate  in  his  judgement, 
except  where  knowledge  of  the  world  is  necessary  to 
form  a  judgement.  He  is  so  amiable,  that  I  pronounce 
you  will  love  him  if  ever  you  become  acquainted  with 
him.  He  would  be,  as  he  was,  a  great  man  in  Con- 
gress." 

But  it  was  not  to  the  revision  of  the  laws  of  his 
state,  or  other  laborious  publick  duties,  that  Mr.  Jef- 
ferson entirely  devoted  himself.  He  at  this  time,  in  a 
noble  manner,  displayed  the  sternness  of  his  justice,  the 
purity  of  his  heart,  and  the  softness  of  his  feelings,  by 
deprecating  all  cruelty  to  a  fallen  foe,  and  by  extend- 
ing a  hand  of  charity  to  the  foiled  ravagers  of  his  coun- 
try, ^is  sympathies  were  excited  by  proposed 


86  LIFE    OF   JEFFERSON. 

to  the  unfortunate,  and  he  gave  his  indignant,  power^ 
ful,  and  successful  pen  to  their  assistance. 

Congress,  it  will  be  recollected,  had  resolved  to  re- 
tain in  America  the  troops  who  had  surrendered  at  Sar- 
atoga, until  the  terms  of  capitulation,  which  had  been 
entered  into  by  the  British  general,  were  duly  ratified 
by,  and  obtained  from,  his  government.  Until  this  was 
done  and  received,  it  was  thought  expedient  to  remove 
them  into  the  interiour  of  the  country;  and  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Charlottesville,  in  Virginia,  was  selected 
as  the  place  of  their  residence. 

"  There  they  arrived  early  in  the  year  1779.  The 
winter  was  uncommonly  severe;  the  barracks  unfinish- 
ed for  want  of  labourers ;  no  sufficient  stores  of  bread 
laid  in ;  and  the  roads  rendered  impassable  by  the  in- 
clemency of  the  weather  and  the  number  of  wagons 
which  had  lately  traversed  them."  Mr.  Jefferson,  aid-, 
ed  by  Mr.  Hawkins,  the  commissary  general,  and  the 
benevolent  disposition  of  his  fellow  citizens,  adopted 
every  plan  to  alleviate  the  distresses  of  the  troops,  and 
to  soften,  as  much  as  possible,  the  hardships  of  captiv- 
ity. Their  efforts  were  attended  with  success.  The 
officers  who  were  able  to  command  money  rented 
houses  and  small  farms  in  the  neighbourhood,  while  the 
soldiers  enlarged  the  barracks  and  improved  their  ac- 
commodations, so  as  in  a  short  time  to  form  a  little 
community,  flourishing  and  happy.  These  arrange- 
ments had  scarcely  been  completed,  when,  in  conse- 
quence of  a  power  lodged  in  them  by  Congress,  the 
Governour  and  Council  of  Virginia  determined  to  re-^ 
move  the  prisoners  to  another  state,  or  to  another  part 
of  the  same  state.  This  intention  was  heard  by  the 


LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON.  8% 

•captives  with  distress.  Mr.  Jefferson  immediately  ad- 
dressed a  letter  to  Governour  Henry,  in  which  he 
stated  the  impolicy,  impropriety,  and  cruelty  of  such  a 
measure. 

But  we  will  give  this  admirable  letter  to  the  reader, 
It  speaks  so  well  for  the  writer,  is  so  illustrative  of  the 
more  amiable  traits  of  his  character,  is  so  correct  in 
sentiment  and  glowing  in  language,  and  was  finally 
so  powerful  in  effect,  that  it  would  be  an  inexcusable 
omission  in  the  memoirs  of  his  life.  Its  incidents  will 
repay  perusal,  while  no  tedium  can  affect  the  patience, 

lO  HIS  EXCELLENCY  PATRICK  HENRY. 

Albemarle,  March  27,  1779. 
SIR, 

A  report  prevailing  here,  that  in  consequence  of 
some  powers  from  Congress,  the  Governour  and  Coun- 
cil have  it  in  contemplation  to  remove  the  Convention 
troops,  either  wholly  or  in  part,  from  their  present  sit- 
uation, I  take  the  liberty  of  troubling  you  with  some 
observations  on  that  subject.  The  reputation  and  in- 
terest of  our  country,  in  general,  may  be  affected  by 
such  a  measure ;  it  would,  therefore,  hardly  be  deemed 
an  indecent  liberty  in  the  most  private  citizen,  to  offer 
his  thoughts  to  the  consideration  of  the  Executive. — 
The  locality  of  my  situation,  particularly  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  present  barracks,  and  the  publick 
relation  in  which  I  stand  to  the  people  among  whom 
they  are  situated,  together  with  a  confidence,  which  a 
personal  knowledge  of  the  members  of  the  Executive 
gives  me,  that  they  will  be  glad  of  information  from 
any  quarter,  on  a  subject  interesting  to  the  publickj 


$8  LITE  X)F    JEFFERSON^, 

induct  me  to  hope  that  they  will  acquit  me  of  impf  o4- 
priety  in  the  present  representation. 

By  an  article  in  the  Convention  of  Saratoga,  it  is 
stipulated,  on  the  part  of  the  United  States,  that  the 
officers  shall  not  be  separated  from  their  men.  I  sup- 
pose the  term  officers,  includes  general  as  well  as  re- 
gimental officers.  As  there  are  general  officers  who 
command  all  the  troops,  no  part  of  them  can  be  sepa- 
rated from  these  officers  without  a  violation  of  the 
article  r  they  cannot,  of  course,  be  separated  from  one 
another,  unless  the  same  general  officer  could  be  in 
different  places  at  the  same  time.  It  is  true,  the  article 
adds  the  words,  "  as  far  as  circumstances  will  admit." 
This  was  a  necessary  qualification ;  because,  in  no 
place  in  America,  I  suppose,  could  there  have  been 
found  quarters  for  both  officers  and  men  together; 
those  for  the  officers  to  be  according  to  their  rank. — 
So  far,  then,  as  the  circumstances  of  the  place  where 
they  should  be  quartered,  should  render  a  separation 
necessary,  in  order  to  procure  quarters  for  the  officers, 
according  to  their  rank,  the  article  admits  that  separa- 
tion. And  these  are  the  circumstances  which  must 
have  been  under  the  contemplation  of  the  parties ;  both 
of  whom,  and  all  the  world  beside,  (who  are  ultimate 
judges  in  the  case,)  would  still  understand  that  they 
were  to  be  as  near  in  the  environs  of  the  camp  as  con- 
venient quarters  could  be  procured  :  and  not  that  the 
qualification  of  the  article  destroyed  the  article  itself, 
and  laid  it  wholly  at  our  discretion.  Congress,  indeed, 
have  admitted  of  this  separation ;  but  are  they  so  far 
lords  of  right  and  wrong  as  that  our  consciences  may 
be  quiet  with  their  dispensation?  Or  is  the  case 


LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON.  89 

attnended  by  saying1  they  leave  ft  optional  in  the  Gov- 
ernour  and  Council  to  separate  the  troops  or  not  ?  At 
the  same  time  that  it  exculpates  not  them,  it  is  draw- 
ing the  Governour  and  Council  into  a  participation  in 
the  breach  of  faith.  If,  indeed,  it  is  only  proposed,  that 
a  separation  of  the  troops  shall  be  referred  to  the  con* 
sent  of  their  officers ;  that  is  a  very  different  matter. 
Having  carefully  avoided  conversation  with  them  on 
publick  subjects,  I  cannot  say,  of  my  own  knowledge, 
how  they  would  relish  such  a  proposition.  I  have 
heard  from  others,  that  they  will  choose  to  undergo  any 
thing  together,  rather  than  to  be  separated,  and  that 
they  will  remonstrate  against  it  in  the  strongest  terms. 
The  Executive,  therefore,  if  voluntary  agents  in  this 
measure,  must  be  drawn  into  a  paper  war  with  them, 
the  more  disagreeable,  as  it  seems  that  faith  and  reason 
will  be  on  the  other  side.  As  an  American,  I  cannot 
help  feeling  a  thorough  mortification,  that  our  Con- 
gress should  have  permitted  an  infraction  of  our  pub- 
lick  honour ;  as  a  citizen  of  Virginia,  I  cannot  help 
hoping  and  confiding,  that  our  supreme  Executive, 
whose  acts  will  be  considered  as  the  acts  of  the  com- 
monwealth, estimate  that  honour  too  highly  to  make 
its  infraction  their  own  act.  I  may  be  permitted  to 
hope,  then,  that  if  any  removal  takes  place,  it  will  be 
a  general  one :  and  as  it  is  said  to  be  left  to  the  Gov- 
etnour  and  Council  to  determine  on  this,  I  am  satisfi- 
ed that,  suppressing  every  other  consideration,  and 
weighing  the  matter  dispassionately,  they  will  deter- 
mine upon  this  sole  question,  Is  it  for  the  benefit  of 
those  for  whom  they  act,  that  the  Convention  troops 
should  be  removed  from  among  them?  Under  the 
9 


90  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

head  of  interest,  these  circumstances,  viz.  the  expense 
of  building  barracks,  said  to  have  been  £25,000,  and  of 
removing  the  troops  backwards  and  forwards,  amount- 
ing to  I  know  not  how  much,  are  not  to  be  pretermit- 
ted,  merely  because  they  are  continental  expenses  :  for 
we  are  a  part  of  the  continent ;  we  must  pay  a  shilling 
of  every  dollar  wasted.  But  the  sums  of  money 
which,  by  these  troops  or  on  their  account,  are  brought 
into  and  expended  in  this  state,  are  a  great  and  local 
advantage.  This  can  require  no  proof.  If,  at  the 
conclusion  of  the  war,  for  instance,  our  share  of  the 
continental  debt  should  be  twenty  millions  of  dollars, 
or  say  that  we  are  called  on  to  furnish  an  annual  quo- 
ta of  two  millions  four  hundred  thousand  dollars,  to 
Congress,  to  be  raised  by  tax,  it  is  obvious  that  we 
should  raise  these  given  sums  with  greater  or  less  ease,' 
in  proportion  to  the  greater  or  less  quantity  of  money 
found  in  circulation  among  us.  I.  expect  that  our  cir- 
culating money  is,  by  the  presence  of  these  troops,  at 
the  rate  of  $30,000  a  week  at  the  least.  I  have  heard, 
indeed,  that  an  objection  arises  to  their  being  kept 
within  this  state,  from  the  information  of  the  commis- 
sary that  they  cannot  be  subsisted  here.  In  attending 
to  the  information  of  that  officer,  it  should  be  borne  in 
mind  that  the  county  of  King  William  and  its  vicini- 
ties are  one  thing,  the  territory  of  Virginia  another. — 
If  the  troops  could  be  fed  upon  long  letters,  I  believe 
the  gentleman  at  the  head  of  that  department  in  this 
eountry  would  be  the  best  commissary  upon  earth. 
But  till  I  see  him  determined  to  aet,  not  to  write — to 
sacrifice  his  domestick  ease  to  the  duties  of  his  ap- 
pointment, and  apply  to  the  resources  of  this  tountry, 


LIFE    OF   JEFFERSON.  91 

wheresoever  they  are  to  be  had,  I  must  entertain  a 
different  opinion  of  him.  I  am  mistaken  if,  for  the 
animal  subsistence  of  the  troops  hitherto,  we  are  not 
principally  indebted  to  the  genius  and  exertions  of 
Hawkins,  during  the  very  short  time  he  lived  after  his 
appointment  to  that  department  by  your  board.  His 
eye  immediately  pervaded  the  whole  state ;  it  was  re- 
duced at  once  to  a  regular  machine,  to  a  system,  and 
the  whole  put  into  movement  and  animation  by  the  jto 
of  a  comprehensive  mind.  If  the  commonwealth  of 
Virginia  cannot  furnish  these  troops  with  bread,  I 
would  ask  of  the  commissariat,  which  of  the  thirteen 
is  now  become  the  grain  colony?  If  we  are  in  dan- 
ger of  famine  from  the  addition  of  four  thousand 
mouths,  what  is  become  of  that  surplus  of  bread,  the 
exportation  of  which  used  to  feed  the  West  Indies  and 
eastern  states,  and  fill  the  colony  with  hard  money? 
When  I  urge  the  sufficiency  of  this  state,  however,  to 
subsist  these  troops,  I  beg  to  be  understood  as  having 
in  contemplation  the  quantity  of  provisions  necessary  for 
their  real  use,  and  not  as  calculating  what  is  to  be  lost 
by  the  wanton  waste,  mismanagement  and  carelessness 
of  those  employed  about  it.  If  magazines  of  beef  and 
pork  are  suffered  to  rot  by  slovenly  butchering,  or  for 
want  of  timely  provision  and  sale ;  if  quantities  of 
flour  are  exposed  by  the  commissaries  intrusted  with 
the  keeping  it,  to  pillage  and  destruction ;  and  if,  when 
laid  up  in  the  continental  stores,  it  is  still  to  be  em- 
bezzled and  sold,  the  land  of  Egypt  itself  would  be 
insufficient  for  their  supply,  and  their  removal  would 
be  necessary,  not  to  a  more  plentiful  country,  but  to 
more  able  and  honest  commissaries.  Perhaps,  the 


92  LIFE    OP   XEFFERSOff. 

magnitude  of  this  question,  and  its  relation  to  th# 
whole  state,  may  render  it  worth  while  to  await  the 
opinion  of  the  National  Council,  which  is  now  to  meet 
within  a  few  weeks.  There  is  no  danger  of  distress 
in  the  mean  time,  as  the  commissaries  affirm  they 
have  a  great  sufficiency  of  provisions  for  some  time  to 
come.  Should  the  measure  of  removing  them  into 
another  state  be  adopted  and  carried  into  execution  be- 
fore the  meeting  of  the  Assembly,  no  disapprobation 
of  theirs  will  bring  them  back,  because  they  will  then  be 
in  the  power  of  others,  who  will  hardly  give  them  up. 
Want  of  information  as  to  what  may  be  the  precise 
measure  proposed  by  the  Governour  and  Council, 
obliges  me  to  shift  my  ground,  and  take  up  the  subject 
in  every  possible  form.  Perhaps  they  have  not  thought 
to  remove  the  troops  out  of  this  state  altogether,  but  to 
some  other  part  of  it.  Here,  the  objections  arising- 
from  the  expenses  of  removal,  and  of  building  new 
barracks,  recur.  As  to  animal  food,  it  may  be  driven 
to  one  part  of  the  country  as  easily  as  to  another:  that 
circumstance,  therefore,  may  be  thrown-  out  of  ques- 
tion. As  to  bread,  I  suppose  they  will  require  about 
forty  or  forty-five  thousand  bushels  of  grain  a  year.  The 
place  to  which  it  is  to  be  brought  to  them,  is  about  the 
centre  of  the  state.  Besides  that  the  country  round 
about  is  fertile,  all  the  grain  made  in  the  counties  ad- 
jacent to  any, kind  of  navigation,  may  be  brought  by 
water  to  within  twelve  miles  of  the  spot.  For  these 
twelve  miles,  wagons  must  be  employed ;  I  suppose 
half  a  dozen  will  be  a  plenty.  Perhaps  this  part  of 
the  expense  might  have  been  saved,  had  the  barracks 
been  built  on  the  water ;  but  it  is  not  sufficient  to  justi- 


LIFE    OP   JEFFERSON.  93 

fy  their  being  abandoned  now  they  are  built.  Wagon- 
age,  indeed,  seems  to  the  commissariat  an  article  not 
worth  economizing.  The  most  wanton  and  studied 
eircuity  of  transportation  has  been  practised ;  to  men- 
tion only  one  act,  they  have  bought  quantities  of  flour 
for  these  troops  in  Cumberland,  have  ordered  il  to  be 
wagoned  down  to  Manchester,  and  wagoned  thence  up 
to  the  barracks.  This  fact  happened  to  fall  within  my 
own  knowledge.  I  doubt  not  there  are  many  more 
such,  in  order  either  to  produce  their  total  removal,  or 
to  run  up  the  expenses  of  the  present  situation,  and 
satisfy  Congress  that  the  nearer  they  are  brought  to 
the  commissary's  own  bed,  the  cheaper  they  will  be 
subsisted.  The  grain  made  in  the  western  counties 
may  be  brought  partly  in  wagons  as  conveniently  to 
this  as  to  any  other  place ;  perhaps  more  so,  on  account 
of  its  vicinity  to  one  of  the  best  passes  through  the 
Blue  Ridge ;  and  partly  by  water,  as  it  is  near  to 
James  river,  to  the  navigation  of  which,  ten  counties 
are  adjacent  above  the  falls.  When  I  said  that  the 
grain  might  be  brought  hither  from  all  the  counties  of 
the  state  adjacent  to  navigation,  I  did  not  mean  to  say 
it  would  be  proper  to  bring  it  from  all.  On  the  contra- 
ry, I  think  the  commissary  should  be  instructed,  after 
the  next  harvest,  not  to  send  one  bushel  of  grain  to  the 
barracks  from  below  the  falls  of  the  river,  or  from  the 
northern  counties.  The  counties  on  tide  water  are 
accessible  to  the  calls  for  our  own  army.  Their  supplies 
ought  therefore  to  be  husbanded  for  them.  The  coun- 
ties in  the  northwestern  parts  of  the  state  are  not  only 
within  reach  for  our  own  grand  army,  but  peculiarly 
necessary  for  the  support  of  Mackintosh's  army ;  or 
9* 


94  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

for  the  support  of  any  other  northwestern  expedition5,, 
which  the  uncertain  conduct  of  the  Indians  should 
render  necessary;  insomuch  that  if  the  supplies  of  that 
quarter  should  be  misapplied  to  any  other  purpose,  it 
would   destroy  in  embryo  every  exertion,   either  for 
particular  or  general  safety  there.    The  counties  above 
tide  water,  in  the  middle,  southern  and  western  parts  of 
the  country,  are  not  accessible  to  calls  for  either  of  those 
purposes,  but  at  such  an  expense  of  transportation  as 
the  article  would  not  bear.    Here,  then,  is  a  great  field, 
whose  supplies  of  bread  cannot  be  carried  to  our  army, 
or  rather,  which  will  raise  no  supplies  of  bread,  because 
there  is  nobody  to  eat  them.     Was  it  not,  then,  wise  in 
Congress  to  remove  to   that  field  four  thousand  idle 
mouths,  who  must  otherwise  have  interfered  \vith  the 
pasture  of  our  own  troops  ?     And,  if  they  are  removed 
to  any  other  part  of  the  country,  will  it  not  defeat  this 
wise  purpose  ?     The  mills  on  the  waters  of  James 
river,  above  the  falls,   open  to  canoe  navigation,  are 
very  many.    Some  of  them  are  of  great  note,  as  man- 
ufacturers.    The  barracks  are  surrounded  by  mills. 
There  are  five  or  six  round  about  Charlottesville. — 
Any  two  or  three  of  the  whole  might,  in  the  course  of 
the  winter,  manufacture  flour  sufficient  for  the  year. 
To  say  the  worst,  then,  of  this  situation,  it  is  but  twelve 
miles  wrong.     The   safe  custody   of  these  troops   is 
another  circumstance  worthy  consideration.     Equally 
removed  from  the  access  of  an  eastern  or  western  en- 
emy, central  to  the  whole  state,  so  that,  should  they 
attempt  an  irruption  in  any  direction,  they  must  pass 
through  a  great  extent  of  hostile  country ;  in  a  neigh- 
bourhood thickly  inhabited  by  a  robust  and  hardy  peo- 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  95 

pie,  zealous  in  the  American  cause,  acquainted  with 
the  use  of  arms,  and  the  defiles  and  passes  by  which 
they  must  issue :  it  would  seem  that,  in  this  point  of 
view,  no  place  could  have  been  better  chosen. 

Their  health  is  also  of  importance.  I  would  not 
endeavour  to  show  that  their  lives  are  valuable  to  us, 
'because  it  would  suppose  a  possibility,  that  humanity 
was  kicked  out  of  doors  in  America,  and  interest  only 
attended  to.  The  barracks  occupy  the  top  and  brow 
of  a  very  high  hill ;  (you  have  been  untruly  told  they 
were  in  a  bottom ;)  they  are  free  from  fog,  have  four 
springs  which  seem  to  be  plentiful,  one  within  twenty 
yards  of  the  picket,  two  within  fifty  yards,  and  another 
within  two  hundred  and  fifty,  and  they  propose  to  sink 
wells  within  the  picket.  Of  four  thousand  people,  it 
should  be  expected,  according  to  the  ordinary  calcu- 
lations, that  one  should  die  every  day :  yet  in  the  space 
of  near  three  months,  there  have  been  but  four  deaths 
among  them  ;  two  infants  under  three  weeks  old,  and 
two  others  by  apoplexy.  The  officers  tell  me,  the 
troops  were, never  before  so  healthy  since  they  were 
embodied. 

But  is  an  enemy  so  execrable,  that,  though  in  captiv- 
ity, his  wishes  and  comforts  are  to  be  disregarded  and 
even  crossed?  I  think  not.  It  is  for  the  benefit  of 
mankind  to  mitigate  the  horrours  of  war  as  much  as 
possible.  The  practice,  therefore,  of  modern  nations,  of 
treating  captive  enemies  with  politeness  and  generos- 
ity, is  not  only  delightful  in  contemplation,  but  really 
interesting  to  all  the  world,  friends,  foes,  and  neutrals. 
Let  us  apply  this :  the  officers,  after  considerable  hard" 
ships,  have  all  procured  quarters  comfortable  and  sat- 


96  LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON. 

isfactory  to  them.  In  order  to  do  this,  they  were  obli- 
ged, in  many  instances,  to  hire  houses  for  a  year  cer- 
tain, and  at  such  exorbitant  rents,  as  were  sufficient 
to  tempt  independent  owners  to  go  out  of  them,  and 
shift  as  they  could.  These  houses,  in  most  cases, 
were  much  out  of  repair.  They  have  repaired  them 
at  a  considerable  expense.  One  of  the  general  officers 
has  taken  a  place  for  two  years,  advanced  the  rent  for 
the  whole  time,  anc^  been  obliged,  moreover,  to  erect 
additional  buildings  for  the  accommodation  of  part  of 
his  family,  for  which  there  was  not  room  in  the  house 
rented.  Independent  of  the  brick  work,  for  the  car- 
pentry of  these  additional  buildings,  I  know  he  is  to 
pay  fifteen  hundred  dollars.  The  same  gentleman,  to 
my  knowledge,  has  paid  to  one  person,  three  thousand 
six  hundred  and  seventy  dollars,  for  different  articles  to 
fix  himself  commodiously.  They  have  generally  laid 
in  their  stocks  of  grain  and  other  provisions,  for  it  is 
well  known  that  officers  do  not  live  on  their  rations. 
They  have  purchased  cows,  sheep,  &c.,  set  in  to  farm- 
ing, prepared  their  gardens,  and  have  a  prospect  of 
comfort  and  quiet  before  them.  To  turn  to  the  sol- 
diers :  the  environs  of  the  barracks  are  delightful,  the 
ground  cleared,  laid  off  in  hundreds  of  gardens,  each 
enclosed  in  its  separate  paling:  these  well  prepared, 
and  exhibiting  a  fine  appearance.  General  Riedesel, 
alone,  laid  out  upwards  of  two  hundred  pounds  in  garden 
aeeds,  for  the  German  troops  only.  Judge  what  an 
extent  of  ground  these  seeds  would  cover.  There  in 
little  doubt  that  their  own  gardens  will  furnish  them  a 
great  abundance  of  vegetables  through  the  year. — 
Their  poultry,  pigeons,  and  other  preparations  of  that 


LIFE    OP    JEFFERSON.  97 

kind,  present  to  the  mind  the  idea  of  a  company  of 
farmers,  rather  than  a  camp  of  soldiers.  In  addition 
to  the  barracks  built  for  them  by  the  publick,  and  now 
very  comfortable,  they  have  built  great  numbers  for 
themselves,  in  such  messes  as  fancied  each  other :  and 
the  whole  corps,  both  officers  and  men,  seem  now  hap- 
py and  satisfied  with  their  situation.  Having  thus 
found  the  art  of  rendering  captivity  itself  comfortable, 
and  carried  it  into  execution,  at  their  own  great  ex- 
pense and  labour,  their  spirit  sustained  by  the  prospect 
of  gratifications  rising  before  their  eyes,  does  not  eve- 
ry sentiment  of  humanity  revolt  against  the  proposi- 
tion of  stripping  them  of  all  this,  and  removing  them 
into  new  situations,  where,  from  the  advanced  season  of 
the  year,  no  preparations  can  be  made  for  carrying 
th'emselves  comfortably  through  the  heats  of  summer ; 
and  when  it  is  known  that  the  necessary  advances  for 
the  conveniences  already  provided,  have  exhausted 
their  funds  and  left  them  unable  to  make  the  like  exer- 
tions anew?  Again;  review  this  matter  as  it  may  re- 
gard appearances.  A  body  of  troops,  after  staying  a 
twelvemonth  at  Boston,  are  ordered  to  take  a  march  of 
seven  hundred  miles  to  Virginia,  where,  it  is  said,  they 
may  be  plentifully  subsisted.  As  soon  as  they  are 
there,  they  are  ordered  on  some  other  march,  because, 
in  Virginia,  it  is  said,  they  cannot  be  subsisted.  Indif- 
ferent nations  will  charge  this  either  to  ignorance  or 
to  whim  and  caprice ;  the  parties  interested,  to  cruelty. 
They  now  view  the  ^proposition  in  that  light,  and  it  is 
said,  there  is  a  general  and  firm  persuasion  among 
them,  that  they  were  marched  from  Boston  with  no 
other  purpose  than  to  harass  and  destroy  them  with 


98  LIFE    OF   JEFFERSON. 

eternal  marches.  Perseverance  in  object,  though  not 
by  the  most  direct  way,  is  often  more  laudable  than 
perpetual  changes,  as  often  as  the  object  shifts  light. 
A  character  of  steadiness  in  our  councils  is  worth 
more  than  the  subsistence  of  four  thousand  people. 

There  could  not  have  been  a  more  unlucky  concur- 
rence of  circumstances  than  when  these  troops  first 
eame.  The  barracks  were  unfinished  for  want  of  la- 
bourers, the  spell  of  weather  the  worst  ever  known 
within  the  memory  of  man,  no  stores  of  bread  laid 
in,  the  roads,  by  the  weather  and  number  of  wagons, 
soon  rendered  impassable:  not  only  the  troops  them- 
selves were  greatly  disappointed,  but  the  people  in  the 
neighbourhood  were  alarmed  at  the  consequences 
which  a  total  failure  of  provisions  might  produce.  In 
this  worst  state  of  things,  their  situation  was  seen  by 
many  and  disseminated  through  the  country,  so  as  to 
occasion  a  general  dissatisfaction,  which  even  seized 
the  minds  of  reasonable  men,  who,  if  not  infected  with 
the  contagion,  must  have  foreseen  that  the  prospeci 
must  brighten,  and  that  great  advantages  to  the  people 
must  necessarily  arise.  It  has,  accordingly,  so  hap- 
pened. The  planters,  being  more  generally  sellers 
than  buyers,  have  felt  the  benefit  of  their  presence  in 
the  most  vital  part  about  them,  their  purses,  and  are 
now  sensible  of  its  source.  I  have  too  good  an  opin- 
ion of  their  love  of  order,  to  believe  that  a  removal  of 
these  troops  would  produce  arsy  irregular  proofs  of 
their  disapprobation,  but  I  am  well  assured  it  would  b« 
extremely  odious  to  them. 

To  conclude.  The  separation  of  these  troops  would 
be  a  breach  of  publick  faith :  therefore  I  suppose  it  im- 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  99 

possible.  If  they  are  removed  to  another  state,  it  is 
the  fault  of  the  commissaries ;  if  they  are  removed  to 
any  other  part  of  the  state,  it  is  the  fault  of  the  com- 
missaries ;  and  in  both  cases,  the  publick  interest  and 
publick  security  suffer,  the  comfortable  and  plentiful 
subsistence  of  our  own  army  is  lessened,  the  health  of 
tha  troops  neglected,  their  wishes  crossed,  and  their 
comforts  torn  from  them,  the  character  of  whim  and 
caprice,  or,  what  is  worse,  of  cruelty,  fixed  on  us  as  a 
nation,  and,  to  crown  the  whole,  our  own  people  dis- 
gusted with  such  a  proceeding. 

I  have  thus  taken  the  liberty  of  representing  to  you 
the  facts  and  the  reasons  which  seem  to  militate  against 
the  separation  or  removal  of  these  troops.  I  am  sen- 
sible, however,  that  the  same  subject  may  appear  to 
different  persons  in  very  different  lights.  What  I 
have  urged  as  reasons,  may,  to  sounder  minds,  be  ap- 
parent fallacies.  I  hope  they  will  appear,  at  least,  so 
plausible,  as  to  excuse  the  interposition  of 
your  Excellency's 

most  obedient 

and  most  humble  servant, 

TH:  JEFFERSON. 

|.  It  needs  no  assurance  from  us  to  our  readers  that  this 
appeal  was  entirely  successful;  nor  was  it  ever  for- 
gotten by  those  unfortunate  captives  from  whom  it 
averted  tyranny,  and  for  \vhose  security  and  comfort 
it  was  penned.  They  duly  appreciated  his  kindness 
and  generosity,  and  their  attachment  and  gratitude 
were  lasting ;  and  in  his  subsequent  travels  through 
Europe,  when  chance  again  threw  him  in  their  socie- 


100  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

ty,  they  loaded  him  with  civility  and  kindness,  and 
spoke  to  their  countrymen  in  warm  terms  of  the  hos- 
pitality of  Virginia.  When  about  to  leave  Charlottes- 
ville,  the  principal  officers  wrote  to  him,  to  renew  their 
thanks,  and  to  bid  him  adieu;  the  answer  of  Mr.  Jef- 
ferson to  one  of  them  has  been  preserved.  "  The 
little  attentions,"  he  says,  "you  are  pleased  to  magnify 
so  much,  never  deserved  a  mention  or  a  thought.  Op- 
posed as  we  happen  to  be  in  our  sentiments  of  duty 
and  honour,  and  anxious  for  contrary  events,  I  shall, 
nevertheless,  sincerely  rejoice  in  every  circumstance 
of  happiness  and  safety  which  may  attend  you  per- 
sonally:' 

To  another  of  them  he  thus  wrote  : 

"  The  very  small  amusements  which  it  has  been  in 
my  power  to  furnish,  in  order  to  lighten  your  heavy 
hours,  by  no  means  merited  the  acknowledgments  you 
make.  Their  impression  must  be  ascribed  to  your 
extreme  sensibility,  rather  than  to  their  own  weight. 
When  the  course  of  events  shall  have  removed  you  to 
distant  scenes  of  action,  where  laurels  not  moistened 
with  the  blood  of  my  country,  may  be  gathered.  I 
shall  urge  my  sincere  prayers  for  your  obtaining  eve- 
ry honour  and  preferment  which  may  gladden  the 
heart  of  a  soldier.  On  the  other  hand,  should  y6tir  fond- 
ness for  philosophy  resume  its  merited  ascendency,  is  it 
impossible  to  hope  that  this  unexplored  country  may 
tempt  your  residence,  by  holding  out  materials  where- 
with to  build  a  fame,  founded  on  the  happiness,  and 
not  on  the  calamities  of  human  nature  ?  Be  this  as  it 
may,  a  philosopher  or  a  soldier,  I  wish  you  personal- 
ly many  felicities." 


OF   JEFFERSON.  101 


CHAPTER  III. 

ON  the  first  of  June,  1779,  Mr.  Jefferson  was  ap- 
pointed Governour  of  the  commonwealth  of  Virginia, 
and  retired  from  the  legislature.  Being  elected  also 
one  of  the  Visiters  of  William  and  Mary  College,  a 
self-electing  body,  he  effected  during  his  residence  in 
Williamsburgh  that  year,  a  change  in  the  organization 
of  that  institution,  by  abolishing  the  grammar  school, 
and  the  two  professorships  of  Divinity  and  Oriental 
Languages,  and  substituting  a  professorship  of  Law 
and  Police  ;  one  of  Anatomy,  Medicine,  and  Chymis- 
try ;  and  one  of  Modern  Languages  ;  and  the  charter 
being  confined  to  six  professorships,  the  Visiters  added 
the  Law  of  Nature  anjd  Nations  and  the  Fine  Arts  to 
the  duties  of  the  Moral  professor,  and  Natural  History 
to  those  of  the  professor  of  Mathematicks  and  Natural 
Philosophy. 

"  Being  now,"  says  he,  "  as  it  were  identified  with 
the  commonwealth  itself,  to  write  my  own  history, 
during  the  two  years  of  my  administration,  would  be 
to  write  the  publick  history  of  that  portion  of  the  revo- 
lution within  this  state."  We  must,  therefore,  rely 
upon  cotemporary  history,  and  his  own  letters,  for  a 
relation  of  those  events  in  which  he  was  more  person- 
ally concerned,  and  which  occurred  during  his  admin- 
istration of  the  government. 
10 


102  LIFE    OF   JEFFERSON. 

Mr,  Jefferson  was  the  second  republican  Governour 
of  Virginia,  he  having  been  chosen  to  succeed  the 
celebrated  Patrick  Henry,  whose  term  of  service  had 
expired.  The  time  of  his  accession  was  one  at  which 
its  duties  were  no  less  trying  than  arduous  and  diffi- 
cult; it  was  at  that  period  of  the  war  when  the  Brit- 
ish government,  exasperated  by  the  long  protraction  of 
hostilities,  and  goaded  by  their  continual  defeats,  in- 
creased the  usual  horrours  of  warfare,  by  the  persecu- 
tion of  the  •  wretched  prisoners  who  fell  into  their 
hands.  The  Governour  of  Virginia,  among  others, 
promptly  expressed  his  determination  to  adopt,  as  the 
only  resource  against  a  system  of  warfare  so  barba- 
rous and  unheard  of,  a  retaliation  on  the  British  pris- 
oners in  his  power. 

Among  the  persons  most  conspicuous  in  these  infa- 
mous transactions,  was  Henry  Hamilton,  Esq.  who 
acted  as  Lieutenant  Governour  of  the  settlement  at 
and  about  Detroit,  and  commandant  of  the  British 
garrison  there,  under  Sir  Guy  Carleton  as  Govern- 
our in  chief.  He  had  not  only  induced  and  instigated 
the  Indians  to  their  butcheries  on  the  frontiers,  but 
had  treated  all  prisoners  in  his  power  with  unprece- 
dented severity.  This  gentleman,  on  the  fifth  of  De- 
cember, 1778,  had  possessed  himself  of  post  St.  Vin- 
cenne,  with  the  intention  of  attacking  Kaskaskia  in 
Illinois,  and  which  there  was  no  doubt  of  his  carrying. 
There  he  expected  to  be  joined  by  two  hundred  Indians 
from  Michilimackinack,  and  five  hundred  Cherokees, 
Chickasaws,  and  other  nations.]  With  this  body  he 
was  to  penetrate  up  the  Ohio  to  Fort  Pitt,  sweeping 
Kentucky  on  his  way,  having  light  brass  cannon  for 


LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON.  103 

the  purpose,  and  expecting  to  be  joined  on  the  march 
by  numerous  bodies  of  Indians.  With  this  force,  he 
made  no  doubt  that  he  could  force  all  West  Augusta. 
"  Colonel  Clarke,  a  brave  and  able  officer  of  Virginia, 
was  then  in  Kaskaskia  with  a  small  body  of  men,  and 
made  every  preparation  for  resisting  the  expected  at- 
tack. However,  there  was  no  hope  of  his  holding  out, 
and  his  destruction^  seemed  inevitable.  In  the  gloom 
of  this  despair,  a  Spanish  merchant,  who  had  been  at 
St.  Vincenne,  arrived,  and  gave  the  following  intelli- 
gence: That  Mr.  Hamilton  had  weakened  himself  by 
sending  his  Indians  against  the  frontiers,  and  to  block 
up  the  Ohio ;  that  he  had  not  more  than  eighty  men 
in  garrison,  three  pieces  of  cannon,  and  some  swivels 
mounted;  and  that  he  intended  to  attack  Kaskaskia 
as  soon  as  the  winter  opened,  and  made  no  doubt  of 
clearing  the  western  waters  by  the  fall.  On  this  in- 
formation, Colonel  Clarke,  with  a  promptitude  that  did 
him  honour,  and  which  his  situation  and  circumstances 
justified,  resolved  upon  becoming  the  assailant,  and  to 
attack  him  before  he  could  collect  his  Indians  again. 
The  resolution  was  as  desperate  as  his  situation,  but 
there  was  no  other  probability  of  securing  the  coun- 
try. He  accordingly  despatched  a  small  galley  which 
he  had  fitted  up,  mounting  two  four-pounders  and  four 
swivels,  with  a  company  of  men  and  necessary  stores 
on  board,  with  orders  to  force  her  way,  if  possible, 
and  station  herself  a  few  miles  below  the  enemy,  suf- 
fering nothing  to  pass  her,  and  wait  for  further  orders. 
In  the  mean  time,  he  himself  marched  across  the 
country  with  one  hundred  and  thirty  men,  being  all  he 
could  raise,  and  leaving  Kaskaskia  garrisoned  by  the 


104  LIFE}  OF  JEFFERSON. 

militia.  He  marched  on  the  7th  of  February,  and 
was  sixteen  days  on  the  route ;  while  the  inclemency 
of  the  season,  high  waters,  &c.  seemed  to  threaten 
the  loss  of  the  expedition.  When  within  three  leagues 
of  the  enemy,  in  a  direct  line,  it  took  them  five  days  to 
cross  the  drowned  lands  of  the  Wabash  river,  having- 
to  wade  often  upwards  of  two  leagues  to  their  breast  in 
water.  Had  not  -the  weather  been  warm,  they  must 
have  perished.  But  on  the  evening  of  the  23d,  they 
got  on  dry  land,  in  sight  of  the  enemy  ;  and  at  seven 
o'clock  made  an  attack,  as  totally  unforeseen  by  them 
as  it  must  have  been  unexpected.  The  town  immedi- 
ately surrendered  with  joy,  and  assisted  in  the  siege, 
*There  wa»  a  continual  fire  on  both  sides  for  eighteen 
hours.  The  moon  setting  about  one  o'clock,  the  Col- 
onel had  an  entrenchment  thrown  up  within  rifle  shot 
of  their  strongest  battery,  and  poured  such  incessant 
showers  of  well-directed  balls  into  their  ports,  that  they 
silenced  two  pieces  of  cannon  in  fifteen  minutes,  with- 
out getting  a  man  hurt. 

*•'  Governour  Hamilton  and  Colonel  Clarke  had,  on 
the  following  day,  several,  conferences,  but  did  not 
agree  until  the  evening,  when  the  former  agreed  to 
surrender  the  garrison  (seventy-nine  in  number)  pris- 
oners of  war,  with  considerable  stores.  Clarke  had 
only  one  man  wounded,  "for,"  says  the  Cojonel  with 
no  little  naivette,  "  not  being  able  to  lose  many,  I  made 
them  secure  themselves  well." 

"  On  the  reception  of  these  prisoners,  the  Governour 
of  Virginia  in  Council  determined,  that  Hamilton  and 
two  of  his  coadjutors  should  be  ironed  and  confined  in 
the  dungeon  of  the  publick  jail,  as,  in  some  measure,  ^ 


llFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  105 

retaliation  for  the  treatment  American  prisoners  had 
deceived  and  were  daily  receiving  at  the  hands  of  the 
enemy. 

An  enumeration  of  the  offences  of  this  Hamilton,  as 
exhibited  by  the  Council,  will  give  some  faint  idea  of 
the  manner  in  which  the  war  was  then  carried  on,  and 
will  be  an  ample  justification  of  Mr.  Jefferson  for  the 
apparent  harshness  of  his  proceedings. 

"  In  Council,  June  18th,  1779. 

"  The  board  proceeded  to  the  consideration  of  the  let- 
ters of  Colonel  Clarke,  and  other  papers  relating  to 
Henry  Hamilton,  Esq.  who  has  acted  for  some  years 
past  as  Lieutenant  Governour  of  the  settlement  at  and 
about  Detroit,  and  commandant  of  the  British  garri- 
son there,  under  Sir  Guy  Carleton  as  Governour  in 
chief;  Philip  Dejean,  justice  of  the  peace  for  Detroit, 
and  William  Lamothe,  captain  of  volunteers,  prison- 
ers of  war,  taken  in  the  county  of  Illinois. 

'*  They  find  that  Governour  Hamilton  has  executed 
the  task  of  inciting  the  Indians  to  perpetrate  th£ir  ac- 
customed cruelties  on  the  citizens  of  the  United  States, 
without  distinction  of  age,  sex,  or  condition,  with  an 
eagerness  and  avidity  which  evince,  that  the  general 
nature  of  his  charge  harmonized  with  his  particular 
disposition.  They  should  have  been  satisfied,  from 
the  other  testimony  adduced,  that  these  enormities 
were  committed  by  savages  acting  under  his  commis- 
sion; but  the  number  of  proclamations  which,  at  differ- 
ent times,  were  left  in  houses,  the  inhabitants  of  which 
were  killed  or  carried  away  by  the  Indians,  one  of 
which  proclamations  is  in  possession  of  the  board,  un- 
10* 


106  LIFE    OF   JEFFERSON. 

der  the  hand  and  seal  of  Governour  Hamilton,  puts 
this  fact  beyond  a  doubt.  At  the  time  of  his  captivity, 
it  appears,  he  had  sent  considerable  bodies  of  Indians 
against  the  frontier  settlements  of  these  states,  and  had 
actually  appointed  a  great  council  of  Indians,  to  meet 
him  at  Tennessee,  to  concert  the  operations  of  this 
present  campaign.  They  find  that  his  treatment  of 
our  citizens  and  soldiers,  taken  and  carried  within  the 
limits  of  his  command,  has  been  cruel  and  inhuman; 
that  in  the  case  of  John  Dodge,  a  citizen  of  these  states, 
which  has  been  particularly  stated  to  this  board,  he 
loaded  him  with  irons,  threw  him  into  a  dungeon,  with- 
out bedding,  without  straw,  without  fire,  in  the  dead  of 
winter,  and  severe  climate  of  Detroit;  that  in  that 
State,  he  wasted  him  with  incessant  expectations  of 
death;  that  when  the  rigours  of  his  situation  had 
brpught  him  so  low  that  death  seemed  likely  to  with- 
draw him  from  their  power,  he  was  taken  out  and 
somewhat  attended  to,  until  a  little  mended,  and  before 
he  had  recovered  ability  to  walk,  was  again  returned 
to  his  dungeon,  in  which  a  hole  was  cut  seven  inches 
square  only  for  the  admission  of  air,  and  the  same  load 
of  irons  again  put  on  him;  that  appearing,  a  second 
time,  in  imminent  danger  of  being  lost  to  them,  he  was 
again  taken  from  his  dungeon,  in  which  he  had  lain 
from  January  till  June,  with  the  intermission  of  a  ff  w 
weeks  only,  before  mentioned.  That  Governour  Ham- 
ilton gave  standing  rewards  for  scalps,  but  offered  none 
for  prisoners,  which  induced  the  Indians,  after  making 
their  captives  carry  their  baggage  into  the  neighbour- 
hood of  the  fort,  there  to  put  them  to"<fcath,  and  carry 
in  their  scalps  to  the  Governour,  who  welcomed  their 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  107, 

•/eturn  and  success  by. a  discharge  of  cannon.     That 
when  a  prisoner,  brought  alive,  and  destined  to  death 
by  the  Indians,  the  fire  already  kindled,  and  himself 
bound  to  the  stake,  was  dexterously  withdrawn,  and 
secreted  from  them  by  the  humanity  of  a  fellow  pris- 
oner, a  large  reward  was  offered  for  the  recovery  of, 
the  victim,  which  having  tempted  a  servant  to  betray 
his  concealment,  the  present  prisoner  Dejean,  being 
sent  with  a  party  of  soldiers,  surrounded  the  house, . 
took  and  threw  into  jail  the  unhappy  victim  and  his  de- 
liverer, where  the  former  soon  expired,  under  the  per- 
petual assurances  of  Dejean  that  he  was  to  be  again 
restored  into  the  hands  of  the  savages :  and  the  latter, .. 
when  enlarged,  was  bitterly  reprimanded  by  Governour 
Hamilton. 

"  It  appears  to  them  that  the  prisoner  Dejean  was,  on 
all  occasions,  the  willing  and  cordial  instrument  of 
Governour  Hamilton,  acting  both  as  judge  and  keeper 
of  the  jails,  and  instigating  and  urging  him,  by  mali- 
cious insinuations  and  untruths,  to  increase  rather 
than  to  relax  his  seventies,  heightening  the  cruelty  of 
his  orders  by  his  manner  of  executing  them,  offering 
at  one  time  a  reward  to  one  man  to  be  hangman  for 
another,  threatening  his  life  on  refusal,  and  taking  from 
his  prisoners  their  little  property  their  opportunities 
enabled  them  to  acquire. 

"  It  appears  that  the  prisoner  Lamothe  was  a  captain 
of  the  volunteer  scalping  parties  of  Indians  and  whites, 
who  went,  from  time  to  time,  under  general  orders  to 
spare  neither  men,  women,  nor  children.  From  this 
detail  of  circumstances,  which  arose  in  a  few  cases 
only,  coming  accidentally  to  the  knowledge  of  the 


108  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSO*. 

board,  th'ey  think  themselves  authorized,  by  fair  de- 
duction, to  presume  what  would  be  the  horrid  history 
of  the  sufferings  of  the  many  who  have  expired  under 
their  miseries,  (which  therefore  will  remain  for  ever 
untold,)  or  who  have  escaped  from  them,  and  are  yet 
too  remote  and  too  much  dispersed  to  bring  together 
their  well-founded  accusations  against  the  prisoners. 

"They  have  seen  that  the  conduct  of  the  British  offi- 
cers, civil  and  military,  has,  in  the  whole  course  of  this 
war,  been  savage,  and  unprecedented  arnong  civilized 
nations:  that  OUT  officers  taken, by  them  have  been 
confined  in  crowded  jails,  loathsome  dungeons,  and 
prison-ships,  loaded  with  irons,  supplied  often  with  no 
food,  generally  with  too  little  for  the  sustenance  of 
nature,  and  that  little  sometimes  unsound  and  unwhole- 
some, whereby  such  numbers  have  perished,  that  cap- 
tivity and  death  have  with  them  been  almost  synony- 
mous ;  that  they  have  been  transported  beyond  seas, 
where  their  fate  is  out  of  the  reach  of  our  inquiry,  have 
been  compelled  to  take  up  arms  against  their  country, 
and  by  a  refinement  in  cruelty,  to- become  murderers 
of  their  own  brethren. 

"  Their  prisoners  with  us  have,  on  the  other  hand:, 
been  treated  with  humanity  and  moderation ;  they  have 
been  fed,  on  all  occasions,  with  wholesome  and  plenti- 
ful food,  suffered  to  go  at  large  within  extensive  tracts 
of  country,  treated  with  liberal  hospitality,  permitted  to 
live  in  the  families  of  our  citizens,  to  labour  for  them*- 
selves,  to  acquire  and'  enjoy  profits,  a"nd,  finally,  to  par- 
ticipate of  the  principal  benefits  of  society,  privileged 
jrom  all  burdens. 

*  Reviewing  this  contrast,  which  cannot  be  denied  by 


j 


UFE    OF    JEfFERSOW, 

eur  enemies  themselves  in  a  single  point,  and  which 
has  now  been  kept  up  during  four  years  of  unremitting 
war,  a  term  long  enough  to  produce  well  founded  de- 
spair that  our  moderation  may  ever  lead  them  to  the 
practice  of  humanity :  called  on  by  that  justice  we  owe 
to  those  who  are  fighting  the  battles  of  our  country,  to 
deal  out,  at  length,  miseries  to  their  enemies,  measure 
for  measure,  and  to  distress  the  feelings  of  mankind  by 
exhibiting  to  them  spectacles  of  severe  retaliation,, 
where  we  had  long  and  vainly  endeavoured  to  intro- 
duce an  emulation  in  kindness  ;  happily  possessed,  by 
the  fortune  of  war,  of  some  of  those  very  individuals 
who,  having  distinguished  themselves  personally  in 
this  line  of  criwl  conduct,  are  'fit  subjects  to  begin  on, 
with  the  work  of  retaliation  ;  this  board;  has  resolved 
to  advise  the  Governour,  that  the  said  Henry  Hamil- 
ton, Philip  Dejean,  and  William  Lamothe,  prisoners 
of  war,  be  put  in  irons,  confined  in  the  dungeon  of  the 
publick  jail,  debarred  the  use  of  pen,  ink,  and  paper,, 
and  excluded  all  converse  except  with  their  keeper. — 
And  the  Governour  orders  accordingly." 

These  orders  were  carried  into  rigorous  and  well- 
deserved  execution,  and  against  which,  as  will  appear 
from  the  following  letter,  General  Phillips,  tho  British 
commanding  officer  in  Virginia, -most  earnestly  remon- 
strated : 

TO  HIS  EXCELLENCY  GENERAL  WASHINGTON. 

Williamsburgh,  July  17, 1779. 
SIR, 

I  some  time  ago  enclosed  to  you  a  printed  copy 
$n  order  of  Council,  by  which  Governour 


110  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSO*. 

Was  to  be  confined  in  irons,  in  close  jail,  which  has  o<}- 
casioned  a  letter  from  General  Phillips,  of  which  the 
enclosed  is  a  copy.  The  General  seems  to  think  that 
a  prisoner  on  capitulation  cannot  be  put  in  close  con- 
finement, though  his  capitulation  should  not  have  pro- 
vided against  it.  My  idea  was,  that  all  persons  taken  in 
war,  were  to  be  deemed  prisoners  of  war.  That  those 
who  surrender  on  capitulation  (or  convention)  are  pris- 
oners of  war  also,  subject  to  the  same  treatment  with 
those  who  surrender  at  discretion,  except  only  so  far 
as  the  terms  of  their  capitulation  or  convention  shall 
have  guarded  them.  In  the  capitulation  of  Governour 
Hamilton,  no  stipulation  is  made  as  to  the  treatment 
of  himself,  or  those  taken  with  him.  The  Governour, 
indeed,  when  he  signs,  adds  a  nourish  of  reasons  indu- 
cing him  to  capitulate,  one  of  which  is  the  generosity  of 
his  enemy.  Generosity,  on  a  large  and  comprehensive 
scale,  seems  to  dictate  the  making  a  signal  example  of 
this  gentleman ;  but  waiving  that,  these  are  only  the  pri- 
vate motives  inducing  him  to  surrender,  and  do  not  en- 
ter into  the  contract  of  Colonel  Clarke.  1  have  the  high- 
est idea  of  those  contracts  which  take  place  between  na- 
tion and  nation,  at  war,  and  would  be  the  last  on  earth 
to  do  any  thing  in  violation  of  them.  I  can  find  noth- 
ing in  those  books  usually  recurred  to  as  testimonials 
of  the  laws  and  usages  of  nature  and  nations,  which 
convicts  the  opinions  I  have  above  expressed  of  errour. 
Yet  there  may  be  such  an  usage  as  General  Phillips- 
seems  to  suppose,  though  not  taken  notice  of  by  these 
writers.  I  am  obliged  to  trouble  your  Excellency  on 
this  occasion,  by  asking  of  you  information  on  this 
point.  There  is  no  other  person,:  whose  decision  wfll 


LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON,  111 

SO  authoritatively  decide  this  doubt  in  the  publick 
inind,  and  none  with  which  I  am  disposed  so  implicitly 
to  comply.  If  you  shall  be  of  opinion  that  the  bare 
existence  of  a  capitulation,  in  the  case  of  Governour 
Hamilton,  privileges  him  from  confinement,  though 
there  be  no  article  to  that  effect  in  the  capitulation,  jus- 
tice shall  most  assuredly  be  done  him.  The  impor- 
tance of  this  point,  in  a  publick  view,  and  my  own 
anxiety  under  a  charge  of  violation  of  national  faith 
by  the  Executive  of  this  Commonwealth,  will,  I  hope, 
apologize  for  my  adding  this  to  the  many  troubles  with 
which  I  know  you  to  be  burdened. 

I  have  the  honour,  &c. 

TH:  JEFFERSON. 

The  three  following  letters,  to  the  same  exalted  per- 
sonage, dismisses  the  fate  of  Governour  Hamilton,  and 
all  connexion  of  Mr.  Jefferson  with  him. 

TO  HIS  EXCELLENCY  GENERAL  WASHINGTON. 

"Williamsburgh,  Oct.  1,  1779. 
SIR, 

On  receipt  of  your  letter  of  August  6th,  during  my 
absence,  the  Council  had  the  irons  taken  off  the  prison- 
ers of  war.  When  your  advice  was  asked,  we  meant 
it  should  decide  with  us  ;  and  upon  my  return  to  Wil 
liamsburgh,  the  matter  was  taken  up  and  the  enclosed 
advice  given,  •  A  parole  was  formed  of  which  the  en- 
closed is  a  copy,  and  tendered  to  the  prisoners.  They 
objected  to  that  part  of  it  which  restrained  them  from 
'saying  any  thing  to  the  prejudice  of  the  United  States, 
and  insisted  on  "  freedom  of  speech."  They  were,  in 


112  LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON. 

•consequence,  remanded  to  their  confinement  in  the  jail, 
which  must  be  considered  as  a  voluntary  one,  until  they 
•can  determine  with  themselves  to  be  inoffensive  in 
word  as  well  as  deed.  A  flag  sails  hence  to-morrow 
••to  New  York,  to  negotiate  the  exchange  of  some  pri- 
soners. By  her  I  have  written  to  General  Phillips  on 
this  subject,  and  enclosed  to  him  copies  of  the  within ; 
intending  it  as  an  answer  to  a  letter  I  received  from 
him  on  the  subject  of  Governour  Hamilton. 
I  have  the  honour,  &c. 

TH:  JEFFERSON. 

5PO  THE  SAME. 

Williamsburgh,  Oct.  2,  1779. 
SIR, 
Just  as  the  letter  accompanying  this  was  going  offj 

^Colonel  Mathews  arrived  on  parole  from  New  York 
by  the  way  of  head  quarters,  bringing  your  Excellen* 
cy's  letter  on  this  subject,  with  that  of  the  British  com- 
missary of  prisoners.  The  subject  is  of  great  impor- 
tance, and  I  must,  therefore,  reserve  myself  to  answer 
after  further  consideration.  Were  I  to  speak  from  pre- 
sent impressions,  I  should  say  it  was  happy  for  Gov- 
ernour Hamilton  that  a  final  determination  of  his  fate 
was  formed  before  this  new  information.  As  the  ene- 
my have  released  Captain  Willing  from  his  irons,  the 
Executive  of  this  state  will  be  induced  perhaps  not  to 
alter  their  former  opinion.  But  it  is  impossible  they 
can  be  serious  in  attempting  to  bully  us  in  this  manner. 
We  have  too  many  of  their  subjects  in  our  power, 
and  too  much  iron  to  clothe  them  with,  and,  I  will  add, 
too  much  resolution  to  avail  ourselves  of  both,  to  fear 


1IFE  OF  JEFFERSON.  113 

their  pretended  retaliation.  However,  I  will  do  myself 
the  honour  of  forwarding  to  your  Excellency  the  ulti- 
mate result  of  Council  on  this  subject. 

In  consequence  of  the  information  in  the  letter  from 
the  British  commissary  of  prisoners,  that  no  officers  of 
the  Virginia  line  should  be  exchanged  till  Governour 
Hamilton's  affair  should  be  settled,  we  have  stopped 
our  flag,  which  was  just  hoisting  anchor  with  a  load  of 
privates  for  New  York.  I  must,  therefore,  ask  the 
favour  of  your  Excellency  to  forward  the  enclosed  by 
flag,  when"  an  opportunity  offers,  as  I  suppose  General 
Phillips  will  be  in  New  York  before  it  reaches  you. 
I  have  the  honour,  &c. 

TH  :  JEFFERSON. 


SIR, 


TO  THE  SAME. 

In  Council,  Oct.  8, 1779. 


In  mine  of  the  second  of  the  present  month,  written 
in  the  instant  of  Colonel  Mathews'  delivery  of  your 
letter,  I  informed  you  what  had  been  done  on  the  sub- 
ject of  Governour  Hamilton  and  his  companions  previ- 
ous to  that  moment.  I  now  enclose  you  an  advice  of 
Council,  in  consequence  of  the  letter  you  were  pleased 
to  enclose  me,  from  the  British  commissary  of  prison- 
ers, with  one  from  Lord  Rawdon;  also  a  copy  of  my 
letter  to  Colonel  Mathews,  enclosing,  also,  the  papers 
therein  named.  The  advice  of  Council  to  allow  the 
enlargement  of  prisoners,  on  their  giving  a  proper  pa- 
role, has  not  been  recalled,  nor  will  it  be,  I  suppose,  un- 
less something  on  the  part  of  the  enemy  should  render 
it  necessary.  I  rather  expect,  however,  that  they  will 
11 


114  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

see  it  their  interest  to  discontinue  this  kind  of  conduct, 
I  am  afraid  1  shall  hereafter,  perhaps,  be  obliged  to 
give  your  Excellency  some  trouble  in  aiding  me  to  ob- 
tain information  of  the  future  usage  of  our  prisoners. 
I  shall  give  immediate  orders  for  having  in  readiness 
every  engine  which  the  enemy  have  contrived  for  the 
destruction  of  our  unhappy  citizens,  captivated  by 
them.  The  presentiment  of  these  operations  is  shock- 
ing beyond  expression.  I  pray  Heaven  to  avert  them : 
but  nothing  in  this  world  will  do  it  but  a  proper  con- 
duct in  the  enemy.  In  every  event,  I  shall  resign 
myself  to  the  hard  necessity  under  which  I  shall  act. 
I  have  the  honour,  &c. 

TH:  JEFFERSON. 

These  measures  of  retaliation  resulted  with  the 
happiest  effects,  and  the  enemy  soon  became  convinced 
that  we  had  "too  many  of  their  subjects  in  our  power, 
and  too  much  iron  to  clothe  them  with."  Thus,  when 
neither  the  dictates  of  humanity  nor  the  usages  of  ci- 
vilized society  could  claim  attention,  distressing  expe- 
rience forced  itself  into  notice  and  obtained  considera- 
tion. But  the  Governour  was  still  vigilant,  and  stood 
prepared  to  adopt  again  the  same  system,  when  the 
British  government  should  resort  to  their  former  prac- 
tices. In  a  letter  to  the  commander  in  chief,  dated 
November  28th,  1779,  he  remarks:  "Lamothe  and 
Dejean  have  given  their  paroles,  and  are  at  Hanover 
Court  House.  Hamilton,  Hay,  and  others,  are  still 
obstinate ;  therefore,  still  in  close  confinement,  though 
their  irons  have  never  been  on  since  your  second  letter 
on  the  subject.  I  wrote  full  information  of  this  matter 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  115 

to  General  Phillips  also,  from  whom  I  had  received 
letters  on  the  subject.  I  cannot,  in  reason,  believe  that 
the  enemy,  on  receiving  this  information,  either  from 
yourself  or  General  Phillips,  will  venture  to  impose 
any  new  cruelties  on  our  officers  in  captivity  with 
them.  Yet  their  conduct,  hitherto,  has  been  most  suc- 
cessfully prognosticated  by  reversing  the  conclusions 
of  right  reason.  It  is,  therefore,  my  duty,  as  well  as 
it  was  my  promise  to  the  Virginia  captives,  to  take 
measures  for  discovering  any  change  which  may  be 
made  in  their  situation.  For  this  purpose,  I  must  apply 
for  your  Excellency's  interposition.  I  doubt  not  but 
you  have  an  established  mode  of  knowing,  at  all  times, 
through  your  commissary  of  prisoners,  the  precise 
state  of  those  in  the  power  of  the  enemy.  I  must, 
therefore,  pray  you  to  put  into  motion  any  such  means 
you  have,  for  obtaining  knowledge  of  the  situation  of 
Virginia  officers  in  captivity.  If  you  should  think 
proper,  as  I  could  wish,  to  take  upon  yourself  to  retali- 
ate any  new  sufferings  which  may  be  imposed  on 
them,  it  will  be  more  likely  to  have  due  weight,  and 
to  restore  the  unhappy  on  both  sides,  to  that  benevolent 
treatment  for  which  all  should  wish." 

The  intermediate  situation  of  Virginia  had,  hither- 
to, in  a  great  measure,  saved  her  interiour  from  the  rava- 
ges of  invasion.  The  storm  of  war  had  spent  its  force 
on  the  more  northern  states,  and  was  now  beginning  to 
burst  with  all  its  horrours  upon  the  south,  wjiile  Vir- 
ginia was  left  to  throw  its  aids  in  whatever  quarter  it 
was  required. 

In  tracing  these  military  operations,  especially  so  far 
as  the  subject  of  these  memoirs  is  connected  with  them, 


116  LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON, 

we  must  derive  much  of  our  information  from  the  lu.- 
cid  and  happy  detail  contained  in  the  "Biography  of 
the  Signers  to  the  Declaration  of  Independence,"  a 
work  to  which  we  acknowledge  previous  obligations. 
This,  with  the  correspondence  of  Mr.  Jefferson  him- 
self, will  be  sufficient  guides  to  every  important  event 
which  occurred  during  his  administration  of  the  af- 
fairs of  Virginia.  More  acceptable  companions. we 
could  not  present  to  the  reader,  and  any  thing  we 
might  offer,  would  be  dull  and  uninteresting  to  the  in- 
struction and  entertainment  they  afford. 

In  the  spring  of  1780,  says  the  biographical  annal- 
ist, the  ferocious  Tarleton  had  made  his  appearance 
on  the  southern  borders  of  Virginia,  marking  his  path 
with  unusual  barbarity.  Immediately  after  him,  fol- 
lowed the  main  army  and  Lord  Cornwallis.  It  was 
then  time  for  this  devoted  state  to  exert  herself.  Troops 
were  rapidly  raised  and  sent  off  to  the  south,  lines  of 
communication  established,  and  every  preparation 
made  to  meet  the  enemy.  It  is  needless  to  remark, 
that  all  the  former  habits  and  pursuits  of  the  Gover- 
nour,  had  been  of  a  kind  little  likely  to  fit  him  for 
military  command;  but  aware  of  the  importance  of 
energy  and  exertion,  at  such  a  crisis,  he  bent  his  mind 
to  the  new  task  which  fortune  had  thrown  upon  him, 
with  alacrity  and  ardour.  "  Our  intelligence  from  the 
southward,"  writes  Mr.  Jefferson  to  General  Wash-  ' 
ington  on  the  eleventh  June,  "  is  most  lamentably  de- 
fective. 'Though  Charleston  has  now  been  in  the 
hands  of  the  enemy  a  month,  we  hear  nothing  of  their 
movements,  which  can  be  relied  on.  Rumours  say 
that  they  are  penetrating  northward.  To  remedy  this 


LIFE   OF   JEFFERSOK.  117 

defect,  I  shall  immediately  establish  a  line  of  expresses 
from  hence  to  the  neighbourhood  of  their  army,  and 
send  thither  a  sensible,  judicious  person,  to  give  us  in- 
for^Hiation  of  their  movements.  This  intelligence  will, 
I  hope,  be  conveyed  at  the  rate  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty  miles  in  the  twenty-four  hours.  They  set  out 
to  their  stations  to-morrow.  I  wish  it  were  possible 
that  a  like  speedy  line  of  communication  could  be 
formed,  from  hence  to  your  Excellency's  head  quarters. 
Perfect  and  speedy  information  of  what  is  passing  in 
the  south,  might  put  it  in  your  power,  perhaps,  to  frame 
your  measures  by  theirs.  There  is  really  nothing  to 
oppose  the  progress  of  the  enemy  northward,  but  the 
cautious  principle  of  the  military  art.  North  Carolina 
is  without  arms.  They  do  not  abound  with  us.  Those 
we  have  are  freely  imparted  to  them ;  but  such  is  the 
state  of  their  resources,  that  they  have  not  been  able  to 
move  a  single  musket  from  this  state  to  theirs.  All 
the  wagons  we  can  collect  here  have  been  furnished 
to  the  Baron  De  Kalb,  and  are  assembled  for  the 
march  of  two  thousand  five  hundred  men  under  Gen- 
eral Stevens,  of  Culpepper,  who  will  move  on  the 
nineteenth  instant.  I  have  written  to  Congress  to  has- 
ten supplies  of  arms  and  military  stores  for  the  south- 
ern states,  and  particularly  to  aid  us  with  cartridge  pa- 
per and  boxes,  the  want  of  which  articles,  small  as 
they  are,  renders  our  stores  useless.  The  want  of  mo- 
ney cramps  every  effort.  This  will  be  supplied  by 
the  most  unpalatable  of  all  substitutes,  force.  Your 
Excellency  will  readily  conceive,  that  after  the  loss  of 
our  army,  our  eyes  are  turned  towards  the  other,  and 
that  we  comfort  ourselves  with  the  hope,  that  if  any 
11* 


118  LIFE   OF   JEFFERSON. 

aids  can  be  furnished  by  you,  without  defeating  op- 
erations more  beneficial  to  the  Union,  they  will  b« 
furnished.  At  the  same  time,  I  am  happy  to  find  that 
the  wishes  of  the  people  go  no  further,  as  far  as  I 
have  an  opportunity  of  learning  their  sentiments. — 
Could  arms  be  furnished,  I  think  this  state  and  North 
Carolina  would  embody  from  ten  to  fifteen  thousand 
militia  immediately,  and  more,  if  necessary,  I  hope 
ere  long  to  be  able  to  give  you  a  more  certain  state- 
ment of  the  enemy's  as  well  as  our  own  situation," 
On  July  2d,  in  a  letter  to  the  same,  he  writes  :  "I  have 
received  from  the  committee  of  Congress,  at  head 
quarters,  three  letters  calling  for  aids  of  men  and  pro- 
visions. I  beg  leave  to  refer  you  to  my  letter  to  them, 
of  this  date,  on  those  subjects.  I  thought  it  necessary, 
however,  to  suggest  to  you  the  preparing  an  arrange- 
ment of  officers  for  the  men ;  for  though  they  are  to 
supply  our  battalions,  yet,  as  our  whole  line  officers, 
almost,  are  in  captivity,  I  suppose  some  temporary  pro- 
vision must  be  made.  We  cheerfully  transfer  to  you 
every  power  which  the  Executive  might  exercise  on 
this  occasion.  As  it  is  possible  you  may  cast  your  eye 
on  the  unemployed  officers  now  within  the  state,  I 
write  to  General  Muhlenburg  to  send  you  a  return  of 
them.  I  think  the  men  will  be  rendezvoused  within 
the  present  month.  The  bill,  indeed,  for  raising  them 
is  not  actually  passed,  but  it  is  in  its  last  stage,  and  no 
opposition  to  any  essential  parts  of  it.  I  will  take  care 
to  notify  you  of  its  passsge.  I  have,  with  great  pain, 
perceived  your  situation;  and  the  more  so,  as,  being 
situated  between  two  fires,  a  division  of  sentiment  has, 
arisen  both  in  Congress  and  here,  as  to  which  the  re* 


Lin  or  JEJTERSOK,  119 


iources  of  this  country  should  be  sent  The  removal 
0f  General  Clinton  to  the  northward  must,  of  course^ 
have  great  influence  on  the  determination  of  this  ques- 
tion ;  and  I  have  no  douht  but  considerable  aids  may 
be  drawn  hence  for  your  army,  unless  a  larger  one 
should  be  embodied  in  the  south,  than  the  force  of  the 
enemy  there  seems  to  call  for." 

The  legislature  had  become  fully  aware  of  their 
danger,  and  adopted  the  most  vigorous  measures  for 
the  increase  and  support  of  the  southern  army.  They 
conferred  on  the  Governour  new  and  extraordinary 
powers;  and  that  officer  exerted  himself  'in  every 
mode  which  ingenuity  could  suggest,  to  ward  off  the 
approaching  danger. 

While,  however,  all  eyes  were  turned  to  the  south, 
and  the  anxiety  of  expectation  rested  there,  a  sudden 
attack  in  another  quarter  was  the  more  disastrous,  as 
it  was  totally  unforeseen. 

Arnold,  whose  treachery  seems  to  have  increased 
the  natural  daring  and  recklessness  of  his  temper,  aware 
of  the  unprotected  situation  of  Virginia  on  the  sea- 
board, formed  a  plan  for  an  attack  on  that  quarter. — 
He  set  sail  from  New  York,  with  sixteen  'hundred 
men,  and,  supported  by  a  number  of  armed  vessels, 
ascended  James  river,  and  landed  about  fifteen  miles 
below  Richmond.  All  the  militia  of  the  state  that 
could  be  supplied  with  arms,  had  been  already  called 
out,  and  placed  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Williamsburgh, 
under  the  orders  of  General  Nelson,  This  event 
seemed  to  leave  the  Governour  almost  without  re- 
source; he  saw  the  enemy  within  a  few  miles  of  the 
capital  of  the  state,  which  was  entirely  undefended; 


120  LIFE    OF   JEFFERSON". 

he  collected  hastily  about  two  hundred  half-armed 
militia,  whom  he  placed  under  the  command  of  Baron 
Steuben,  for  the  purpose  of  protecting  the  removal  of 
the  records  and  military  stores  across  James  river;  he 
superintended  their  movements  in  person,  with  the  ut- 
most zeal,  courage,  and  prudence;  and  he  was  seen 
coolly  issuing  his  orders  until  the  enemy  had  actually 
entered  the  loAver  part  of  the  town,  and  began  to  flank 
it  with  their  light  horse.  "  As  the  order  for  drawing 
militia  here,"  writes  the  Governour  to  General  Wash- 
ington, "  had  been  given  but  two  days,  no  opposi- 
tion was  in  readiness.  Every  effort  was  therefore  ne- 
cessary to  withdraw  the  arms  and  other  military  stores, 
records,  &c,  from  this  place.  Every  effort  was  accord- 
ingly exerted  to  convey  them  to  the  foundry,  five  miles, 
and  to  a  laboratory,  six  miles  above  this  place,  till 
about  sunset -of  that  day,  when^  we  learned  that  the 
enemy  had  come  to  an  anchor  at  Westover  that 
morning.  We  then  knew  that  this,  and  not  Pe- 
tersburgh,  was  their  object,  and  began  to  carry  across 
the  river  every  thing  remaining  here,  and  to  remove 
what  had  been  transported  to  the  foundry  and  labora- 
tory, to  Westham,  the  nearest  crossing,  seven  miles 
above  this  place,  which  operation  was  continued  till 
they  had  approached  very  near.  They  marched  from 
Westover  at  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  the  4th, 
and  entered  Richmond  at  one  o'clock  in  the  afternoon 
of  the  5th,  A  regiment  of  infantry  and  about  thirty 
horse  continued  on,  without  halting,  to  the  foundry. 
They  burnt  that,  the  boring  mill,  the  magazine,  and 
two  other  houses,  and  proceeded  to  Westham;  but  noth- 
ing being  in  their  power  there,  they  retired  to  Rich- 


LIFE    OF   JEFFERSON.  121 

mond.  The  next  morning  they  burnt  some  buildings 
of  publick  and  private  property,  with  what  stores  re- 
mained in  them,  destroyed  a  great  quantity  of  private 
stores,  and  about  twelve  o'clock  retired  towards  West- 
over,  where  they  encamped  within  the  Neck  the  nexi 
day.  The  loss  sustained  is  not  yet  accurately  known, 
As  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  discover,  it  consisted,  at 
this  place,  of  about  three  hundred  muskets,  some  sol- 
diers' clothing  to  a  small  amount,  some  quarter-mas- 
ter's stores,  of  which  one  hundred  and  twenty  sides  of 
leather  was  the  principal  article,  part  of  the  artificers' 
tools,  and  three  wagons.  Besides  which,  fire  brass 
four-pounders,  which  we  had  sunk  in  the  river,  were 
discovered  to  them,  raised  and  carried  off  At  the 
foundry,  we  lost  the  greater  part  of  the  papers  belong- 
ing to  the  Auditor's  office,  and  of  the  books  and  pa- 
pers of  the  Council  office.  About  five  or  six  tons  of 
powder,  as  we  conjecture,  was  thrown  into  the  canal, 
of  which  there  will  be  a  considerable  saving  by  re- 
manufacturing  it.  The  roof  of  the  foundry  was 
burned,  but  the  stacks  of  chimneys  and  furnaces  not 
at  all  injured.  The  boring  mill  was  consumed. — . 
Within  less  than  forty-eight  hours  from  the  time  of 
their  landing,  and  nineteen  from  our  knowing  their 
destination,  they  had  penetrated  thirty-three  miles, 
done  the  whole  injury,  and  retired.  Their  numbers,, 
from  the  best  intelligence  I  have  had,  are  about  fifteen 
hundred  infantry,  and  as  to  their  cavalry,  accounts  vary 
from  fifty  to  one  hundred  and  twenty  ;  and  the  whole 
commanded  by  the  parricide  Arnold.  Should  they 
loiter  a  little  longer,  I  still  flatter  myself  they  will  not 
escape  with  total  impunity.  To  what  place  they  will 


122  LIFE    OJ»    JEFFERSON. 

point  their  next  exertions  we  cannot  even  conjecture. 
The  whole  country  on  the  tide  waters  and  some  dis- 
tance from  them,  is  equally  open  to  similar  insults." 

Major  General  Steuben,  assisted  by  General  Nel- 
son, having  by  this  time  collected  a  considerable  force, 
marched  in  pursuit  of  Arnold.  But  the  movements  of 
the  latter  were  too  rapid  to  be  interrupted  by  the  tardy 
advances  of  undisciplined  militia.  They  were,  how- 
ever,  able  to  prevent  similar  incursions,  and  by  re- 
maining in  the  vicinity  of  Portsmouth,  they  confined 
the  enemy  to  their  intrenchments. 

Although  Arnold  had  thus  succeeded  in  plundering 
and  ravaging  the  country,  the  Governour  determined 
that,  if  possible,  the  traitor  should  not  eventually  es- 
cape. He  had  no  doubt  of  his  capture,  if  a  plan  were 
prudently  formed,  and  boldly  carried  into  execution. 
The  scheme  which  suggested  itself  for  this  purpose  is 
best  explained  by  a  letter  from  him  to  General  Muh- 
lenburg,  and  dated  on  the  31st  of  January : 

"  Sir — Acquainted  as  you  are  with  the  treasons  of 
Arnold,  I  need  say  nothing  for  your  information,  or  to 
give  you  a  proper  sentiment  of  them.  You  will  read- 
ily suppose  that  it  is  above  all  things  desirable  to  drag 
him  from  those  under  whose  wing  he  is  now  sheltered. 
On  his  march  to  and  from  this  place,  I  am  certain  it  \ 
might  have  been  done  with  facility,  by  men  of  enter- 
prise and  firmness.  I  think  it  may  still  be  done,  though 
perhaps  not  quite  so  easily.  Having  peculiar  confi- 
dence in  the  men  from  the  western  side  of  the  moui> 
tains,  I  meant,  as  soon  as  they  should  come  down,  to 
get  the  enterprise  proposed  to  a  chosen  number  of 
them*  such  whose  courage  and  whose  fidelity  would  be 


LIFE    OF   JEFFERSON.  128 

above  all  doubt.  Your  perfect  knowledge  of  those 
men  personally,  and  my  confidence  in  your  discretion, 
induce  me  to  ask  you  to  pick  from  among  them  proper 
characters,  in  such  numbers  as  you  think  best,  to  re- 
.veal  to  them  our  desire,  and  engage  them  to  undertake 
to  seize  and  bring  off  this  greatest  of  all  traitors. 
Whether  this  may  be  best  effected  by  their  going  in  as 
friends,  and  awaiting  their  opportunity,  or  otherwise, 
is  left  to  themselves.  The  smaller  the  number  the 
better,  so  that  they  may  be  sufficient  to  manage  him, 
Every  necessary  caution  must  be  used  on  their  part,  to 
prevent  a  discovery  of  their  design  by  the  enemy.  I 
will  undertake,  if  they  are  successful  in  bringing  him. 
off  alive,  that  they  shall  receive  five  thousand  guineas 
reward  among  them  ;  and  to  men  formed  for  such  an 
'enterprise,  it  must  be  a  great  incitement  to  know  that 
their  names  will  be  recorded  with  glory  in  history, 
,with  those  of  Van  Wart,  Paulding,  and  Williams. 
The  enclosed  order  from  Baron  Steuben  will  authorize 
you  to  call  for  and  to  dispose  of  any  force  you  may 
think  necessary  to  place  in  readiness  for  covering  the 
enterprise,  and  securing  the  retreat  of  the  party.  Mr. 
Newton,  the  bearer  of  this,  and  to  whom  its  contents 
are  communicated  in  confidence,  will  provide  men  of 
trust  to  go  as  guides.  These  may  be  associated  in  the 
enterprise  or  not,  as  you  please;  but  let  the  point  be 
previously  settled,  that  no  difficulty  may  arise  as  to 
the  parties  entitled  to  participate  in  the  reward.  You 
know  how  necessary  profound  secrecy  is  in  this  busi- 
ness, even  if  it  be  not  undertaken." 

There  was  no  difficulty  in  finding  men  bold  enough 
and  ready  enough  to  undertake  this,  or  any  other 


124  'llFE  OF  JEFFERSON. 

, 

hazard';  but  the  attempt  was  rendered  unavailing  by 
the  timely  prudence  of  Arnold,  who  avoided  every  ex- 
posure to  such  a  danger. 

Frustrated  in  this  plan,  the  Governour  turned  his 
attention  to  another  and  bolder  scale,  in  which  he  was 
to  be  aided  by  General  Washington,  and  the  French 
fleet.  The  latter,  then  at  Rhode  Island,  were  to  sail 
immediately  for  James  river,  to  prevent  the  escape  of 
the  enemy  by  sea,  while  a  large  body  of  troops  should 
be  collected  on  shore,  for  the  purpose  of  blockading 
them,  and  ultimately  compelling  a  surrender.  On  the 
eighth  of  March,  Mr.  Jefferson  thus  writes  to  the  com- 
mander in  chief.  "  We  have  made  on  our  part,  every 
preparation  which  we  were  able  to  make.  The  mili- 
tia proposed  to  operate  willJbe  upwards  of  four  thou- 
sand from  this  state,  and  one  thousand  or  twelve  hun- 
dred from  Carolina,  said  to  be  under  General  Gregory, 
The  enemy  are  at  this  time,  in  a  great  measure, 
blockaded  by  land,  there  being  a  force  on  the  east  side 
of  Elizabeth  river.  They  suffer  for  provisions,  as 
they  are  afraid  to  venture  far,  lest  the  French  squadron 
should  be  in  the  neighbourhood,  and  come  upon  them. 
Were  it  possible  to  block  up  the  river,  a  little  time 
would  suffice  to  reduce  them  by  want  and  desertions  j 
and  would  be  more  sure  in  its  event  than  any  attempt 
by  storm."  The  French  fleet,  however,  encountered, 
on  their  arrival  at  the  Chesapeake,  a  British  squadron 
of  equal,  if  not  superiour  force,  by  which  they  were 
driven  back;  by  these  means  the  plan  was  defeated, 
and  Arnold  again  escaped. 

But  Virginia  was  not  yet  redeemed  from  disasters, 
and  new  difficulties  were  to  be  encountered  by  the  tal- 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  125 

'  ignis  and  activity  of  her  Governour.  Arnold  had 
scarcely  left  the  coast,  when  Cornwallis  entered  the 
state  on  the  southern  frontier.  "  I  make  no  doubt  you 
will  have  heard,"  writes  Mr.  Jefferson  in  a  communi- 
cation of  May  28,  shortly  after  the  invasion,  to  Gen- 
eral Washington,  "  before  this  shall  have  the  honour 
of  being  presented  to  your  Excellency,  of  the  junction 
of  Lord  Gornwallis  with  the  force  at  Petersburgh  un- 
der Arnold,  who  had  succeeded  to  the  command  on 
the  death  of  Major  General  Phillips.  I  am  now  ad- 
vised :that  'they  have  evacuated  Petersburgh,  joined  at 
Westover  a  reinforcement  of  two  thousand  men  just 
arrived  from  New  York,  crossed  James  river,  and  on 
the  26th  instant,  were  three  miles  advanced  on  their 
way  towards  Richmond  ;  at  which  place  Major  Gene- 
ral the  Marquis  Lafayette  lay  with  three  thousand  men, 
regulars  and  militia ;  these  being  the  whole  number 
we  could  arm  until  the  arrival  of  the  eleven  hundred 
arms  from  Rhode  Island,  which  are,  about  this  time, 
at  the  place  where  our  publick  stores  are  deposited. — 
The  whole  force  of  the  enemy  within  this  state,  from 
the  best  intelligence  I  have  been  able  to  get,  is,  I  think, 
about  seven  thousand  men,  infantry  and  cavalry,  inclu- 
ding, also,  the  small  garrison  left  at  Portsmouth.  A 
number  of  privateers,  which  are  constantly  ravaging 
the  shores  of  our  rivers,  prevent  us  from  receiving  any 
aid  from  the  counties  lying  on  navigable  waters;  and 
powerful  operations  meditated  against  our  western 
frontier,  by  a  joint  force  of  British  and  Indian  sava- 
ges,  have,  as  your  Excellency  before  knew,  obliged  us 
to  imbody  between  two  and  three  thousand  men  in  that 
quarter.  Your  Excellency  will  judge  from  this  state 
12 


126  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

of  things  and  from  what  you  know  of  our  country, 
what  it  may  probably  suffer  during  the  present  cam- 
paign. Should  the  enemy  be  able  to  produce  no  op- 
portunity of  annihilating  the  Marquis'  army,  a  small 
proportion  of  their  force  may  yet  restrain  his  move- 
ments effectually,  while  the  greater  part  are  employed, 
in  detachment,  to  waste  an  unarmed  country,  and  lead 
the  minds  of  the  people  to  acquiesce  under  those 
events,  which  they  see  no  human  power  prepared  to 
ward  off.  We  are  too  far  removed  from  the  other 
scenes  of  war,  to  say  whether  the  main  force  of  the 
enemy  be  within  this  state.  But  I  suppose  they  can- 
not any  where  spare  so  great  an  army  for  the  opera- 
tions of  the  field.  Were  it  possible  for  this  circum- 
stance to  justify  in  your  Excellency  a  determination  to 
lend  us  your  personal  aid,  it  is  evident  from  the  uni- 
versal voice,  that  the  presence  of  their  beloved  country- 
man, whose  talents  have  so  long  been  successfully 
employed  in  establishing  the  freedom  of  kindred  states, 
to  whose  person  they  have  still  flattered  themselves 
they  retain  some  right,  and  have  ever  looked  up,  as 
their  dernier  resort  in  distress,  would  restore  full  confi- 
dence of  salvation  to  our  citizens,  and  would  render 
them  equal  to  whatever  is  not  impossible.  I  cannot 
undertake  to  foresee  and  obviate  the  difficulties  which 
lie  in  the  way  of  such  a  resolution.  The  whole  sub- 
ject is  before  you,  of  which  I  see  only  detached  parts ; 
and  your  judgement  will  be  formed  on  a  view  of  the 
whole.  Should  the  danger  of  this  state,  and  its  conse- 
quence to  the  Union,  be  such  as  to  render  it  best  for 
the  whole  that  you  should  repair  to  its  assistance,  the 
difficulty  would  then  be,  how  to  keep  men  out  of  the 


LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON.  127 

field.  I  have  undertaken  to  hint  this  matter  to  your 
Excellency,  not  only  on  my  own  sense  of  its  impor- 
tance to  us,  but  at  the  solicitations  of  many  members 
of  weight  in  our  legislature,  which  has  not  yet  as- 
sembled to  speak  their  own  desires. 

A  few  days  will  bring  me  that  relief  which  the  con- 
stitution has  prepared  for  those  oppressed  with  the  la- 
bours of  my  office,  and  a  long  declared  resolution  of 
relinquishing  it  to  abler  hands,  has  prepared  my  way 
for  retirement  to  a  private  station :  still,  as  an  individu- 
al, I  should  feel  the  comfortable  effects  of  your  pres- 
ence, and  have  (what  I  thought  could  not  have  been) 
an  additional  motive  for  that  gratitude,  esteem,  and  re- 
spect, with  which  I  have  the  honour  to  be,"  &c. 

No  country,  certainly,  was  ever  worse  prepared  for 
defence  than  was  Virginia  at  the  time  of  this  hostile 
irruption ;  her  troops  had  been  drawn  off  to  distant 
•quarters,  her  resources  had  been  exhausted  to  supply 
other  states,  and  she  was  alike  destitute  of  military 
stores  and  of  funds  to  obtain  them.  The  whole  bur- 
den of  affairs,  too,  had  been  thrown  on  the  Governour; 
the  legislature  had  hastily  adjourned  on  the  invasion 
of  Arnold  in  January,  to  meet  again  at  Charlottesville 
on  the  24th  of  May  ;  in  the  mean  time  he  had  no  re- 
source' but  to  make  the  best  of  the  means  which  Prov- 
idence had  given  him,  and  to  depend  on  that  good  for- 
tune which  had  already  so  often  befriended  his  coun- 
try, at  moments  the  most  gloomy  and  unpromising. — 
To  resist  invasion,  the  militia  was  his  only  force ;  and 
the  resort  even  to  this,  was  limited  by  the  deficiency  of 
arms.  He  used  every  effort,  however,  to  increase  its 
efficacy.  When  it  was  sent,  into  the  field,  he  called 


128  LIFE    O*    JEFFERSON. 

into  service  a  number  of  officers  who  had  resigned,  or 
been  thrown  out  of  publick  employment  by  reductions 
of  continental,  regiments  for  want  of  men,  and  gave 
them  commands ;  an  expedient  which,  together  with 
the  aid  of  the  old  soldiers  scattered  in  the  ranks,  pro- 
duced a  sudden  and  highly  useful  degree  of  skill,  dis- 
cipline, and  subordination.  Men  were  drafted  for  the 
regular  regiments,  and  considerable  detachments  of 
the  militia  were  sent  to  the  south,  and  a  number  of 
horses,  essentially  necessary,  were  rapidly  obtained  by 
an  expedient  of  Mr.  Jefferson's.  Instead  of  using  a 
mercenary  agency,  he  wrote  to  an  individual,  general- 
ly a  member  of  Assembly,  in  each  of  the  counties 
where  they  were  to  be  had,  to  purchase  a  specified 
number  with  the  then  expiring  paper  money.  This 
expedient  met  with  a  success  highly  important  to  the 
common  cause.  Nor  was  it  sufficient  to  protect  his 
own  state  alone  ;  aid  was  demanded  for  the  Carolines, 
and  this,  though  increasing  the  destitution  and  distress 
at  home,  was  furnished  to  a  considerable  extent.  At 
length,  however,  exhausted  by  her  efforts  to  aid  her 
sister  states,  almost  stripped  of  arms,  without  money, 
and  harassed  on  the  east  and  on  the  west  with  formi- 
dable invasions,  Virginia  appeared  at  last  without  re- 
sources. 

In  this  state  of  things,  the  24th  of  May  arrived,  but 
it  was  not  'until  the  28th  that  the  legislature  was  form- 
ed at  Charlottesville,  to  proceed  to  business.  On  that 
day,  the  Governour  addressed  that  letter  to  the  com- 
mander in  chief  which  we  have  last  inserted.  On  the 
2d  of  June,  the  term  for  which  Mr.  Jefferson  had  beea 
elected,  expired,  and  he  returned  to  the  situation  of.  a. 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  129 

private  citizen,  after  having  conducted  the  affairs  of 
his  state  through  a  period  of  difficulty  and  danger, 
without  any  parallel  in  its  preceding  or  subsequent 
history,  and  with  a  prudence  and  energy  that  might 
Jiave  gained  him  more  fame,  had  the  times  been  less 
unpropitious,  but  which,  from  that  very  reason,  have 
been,  and  will  be,  more  appreciated  and  honoured  in 
succeeding  times.  "  I  resigned,"  says  he,  "from  a  be- 
lief that,  under  the  pressure  of  the  invasion  under 
which  we  were  then  labouring,  the  publick  would  have 
more  confidence  in  a  military  chief,  and  that,  the  mili- 
tary commander  being  invested  with  the  civil  power 
also,  both  might  be  wielded  with  more  energy,  promp- 
titude and  effect,  for  the  defence  of  the  state." 

Two  days  after  his  retirement  from  the  government, 
says  the  biographer  who  has  already  afforded  us  our 
information  of  the  military  events  during  his  adminis- 
tration, and  when  on  his  estate  at  Monticello,  intelli- 
gence was  suddenly  brought  that  Tarleton,  at  the  head 
of  two  hundred  and  fifty  horse,  had  left  the  main  army 
for  the  purpose  of  surprising  and  capturing  the  mem- 
bers of  Assembly  at  Charlottesville.  The  house  had 
just  met,  and  was  about  to  commence  business,  when 
the  alarm  was  given  :  they  had  scarcely  taken  time  to 
adjourn  informally  to  meet  at  Staunton  on  the  seventh, 
when  the  enemy  entered  the  village,  in  the  confident 
expectation  of  an  easy  prey. .  The  escape  was  indeed 
narrow,  but  no  one  was  taken.  In  pursuing  the  legis- 
lature, however,  the  Governour  was  not  forgotten ;  a 
troop  of  horse  under  a  Captain  M'Leod  had  been  de- 
spatched to  Monticello,  fortunately  with  no  better  suc- 
cess. The  intelligence  received  at  Charlottesville  was 
12* 


150  LIFE    OF   JEFFERSON. 

soon  conveyed  thither,  the  distance  between  the  two 
places  being  very  short.  Mr.  Jefferson  immediately 
ordered  a  carriage  to  be  in  readiness  to  carry  off  his 
family,  who,  however,  breakfasted  at  leisure  with  some 
guests.  Soon  after  breakfast,  and  when  the  visiters 
had  left  the  house,  a  neighbour  rode  up  in  full  speed, 
with  the  intelligence  that  p.  troop  of  horse  was  then 
ascending  the  hill.  Mr.  Jefferson  now  sent  off  his 
family,  and  after  a  short  delay  for  some  indispensable 
arrangements,  mounted  his  horse,  and  taking  a  course 
through  the  woods,  joined  them  at  the  house  of  a  friend, 
where  they  dined.  It  would  scarcely  be  believed  by 
those  not  acquainted  with  the  fact,  that  this  flight  of  a 
single  and  unarmed  man  from  a  troop  of  cavalry,  whose 
whole  legion,  too,  was  within  supporting  distance,  and 
whose  main  object  was  his  capture,  has  been  the  subt 
ject  of  volumes  of  reproach,  in  prose  and  poetry,  serious 
and  sarcastick. 

In  answer  to  some  inquiries  from  Dr.  Gordon,  Mr, 
Jefferson  gives  the  following  account  of  the  treatment 
his  property  received,  both  from  Tarleton  and  Lord 
Cornwallis :  "  You  ask  in  your  letter  of  April  the 
24th,  details  of  my  sufferings  by  Colonel  Tarleton.  I 
did  not  suffer  by  him.  On  the  contrary,  he  behaved 
very  genteelly  with  me.  On  his  approach  to  Char- 
lottesville,  which  is  within  three  miles  of  my  house  at 
Monticello,  he  despatched  a  troop  of  his  horse,  under 
Captain  M'Leod,  with  the  double  object  of  taking  me 
prisoner,  with  the  two  Speakers  of  the  Senate  and  Del1 
egates,  who  then  lodged  with  me,  and  of  remaining 
there  in  vidette,  my  house  commanding  a  view  of  ten 
or  twelve  miles  round  about.  He  gave  strict  orders  to 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  131? 

Captain  M'Leod  to  suffer  nothing  to  be  injured.  The 
troop  failed  in  one  of  their  objects,  as  we  had  notice  of 
their  coming,  so  that  the  two  Speakers  had  gone  off 
about  two  hours  before  their  arrival  at  Monticello,  and 
myself,  with  my  family,  about  five  minutes.  But  Cap- 
tain M'Leod  preserved  every  thing  with  sacred  care, 
during  about  eighteen  hours  that  he  remained  there. 
Colonel  Tarleton  was  just  so  long  at  Charlottesville,, 
being  hurried  from  thence  by  the  news  of  the  rising  of 
the  militia,  and  by  a  sudden  fall  of  rain,  which  threat- 
ened to  swell  the  river  and  intercept  his  return.  In 
general,  he  did  little  injury  to  the  inhabitants  on  that 
short  and  hasty  excursion,  which  was  of  about  sixty, 
miles  from  their  main  army,  then  in  Spottsylvania, , 
and  ours  in  Orange,  It  was  early  in  June,  1781.  Lord 
Cornwallis  then  proceeded  to  the  point  of  Fork,  and 
encamped  his  army  from  thence  all  along  the  main 
James  river,  to  a  seat  of  mine  called  Elk  Hill,  opposite 
to  Elk  Island,  and  a  little  below  the  mouth  of  the  Byrd 
Creek.  He  remained  in  this  position  ten  days,  hia 
own  head  quarters  being  in  my  house  at  that  plac£.  I 
had  time  to  remove  most  of  the  effects  out  of  the  house, 
He  destroyed  all  my  growing  crops  of  corn  and  tobac- 
co ;  he  burned  all  my  barns,  containing  the  same  arti- 
cles of  the  last  year,  having  first  taken  what  corn  he 
wanted  ;  he  used,  as  was  to  be  expected,  all  my  stock 
of  cattle,  sheep  and  hogs,  for  the  sustenance  of  his 
army,  and  carried  off  all  the  horses  capable  of  service  j 
of  those  too  young  for  service,  he  cut  the  throats ;  and 
he  burned  all  the  fences  on  the  plantation,  so  as  to  leave 
it  an  absolute  waste.  He  carried  off  also  about,  thirty 
slaves.  Had.  this  been  to  give  them  freedom,  he  would. 


. 

132  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

have  done  right :  but  it  was  to  consign  them  to  inevi- 
table death  from  the  smallpox  and  putrid  fever,  then 
raging  in  his  camp.  This  I  knew  afterwards  to  be  the 
fate  of  twenty-seven  of  them.  I  never  had  news  of  the 
remaining  three,  but  presume  they  shared  the  same 
fate.  When  I  say  that  Lord  Cornwallis  did  all  this,  I 
do  not  mean  that  he  carried  about  the  torch  with  his 
own  hands,  but  that  it  was  all  done  under  his  own  eye : 
the  situation  of  the  house  in  which  he  was,  command- 
ing a  view  of  every  part  of  the  plantation,  so  that  he 
must  have  seen  every  fire.  I  relate  these  things  on  my 
own  knowledge,  in  a  great  degree,  as  I  was  on  the 
ground  soon  after  he  left  it.  He  treated  the  rest  of  the 
neighbourhood  somewhat  in  the  same  style,  but  not 
with  that  spirit  of  total  extermination  with  which  he 
seemed  to  rage  over  my  plantation.  Whereever  he 
went,  the  dwelling  houses  were  plundered  of  every 
thing  which  could  be  carried  off.  Lord  Cornwallis's 
character  in  England  would  forbid  the  belief  that  he 
shared  in  the  plunder ;  but  that  his  table  was  served 
with  the  plate  thus  pillaged  from  private  houses,  can 
be  proved  by  many  hundred  eye-witnesses.  From  an 
estimate  I  made  at  that  time,  on  the  best  information  I 
could  collect,  I  suppose  the  state  of  Virginia  lost  under 
Lord  Cornwallis's  hands,  that  year,  about  thirty  thou- 
sand slaves ;  and  that  of  these,  about  twenty-seven 
thousand  died  of, the  smallpox  and  camp  fever,  and  the 
rest  were  partly  sent  to  the  West  Indies,  and  exchanged 
for  rum,  sugar,  coffee,  and  fruit,  and  partly  sent  to 
New  York,  from  whence  they  went  at  the  peace,  either 
to  Nova  Scotia  or  England.  From  this  last  place,  I 
believe  they  have  lately  been  sent  to  Africa.  History 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

will  never  relate  the  horrours  committed  by  the  BritisV 
army  in  the  southern  states  of  America.  They  raged 
in  Virginia  six  months  only,  from  the  middle  of  April 
to  the  middle  of  October,  1781,  when  they  were  all 
taken  prisoners :  and  I  give  you  a  faithful  specimen  of 
their  transactions  for  ten  days  of  that  tim^,  and  on  one 
spot  only.  Ex  pede  Herculem.  I  suppose  their  whole 
'devastations  during  those  six  months  amounted  to 
about  three  millions  sterling." 

In  times  of  difficulty  and  danger,  it  is  seldom  that 
the  actions  of  the  wisest  and  the  best  can  escape  with- 
out censure.  Where  they  are  not  the  marks  of  ma- 
levolence, they  are  yet  dwelt  on  with  morbid  distrust 
by  the  discontented  and  the  timid ;  they  are  contrasted 
by  every  speculative  reasoner  with  the  fanciful  schemes 
which  his  own  imagination  has  suggested;  and  if  they 
do  not  chance  to  be  crowned  with  unexpected  success, 
the  failure  is  attributed  to  intrinsick  weakness,  rather 
than  to  unavoidable  accident.  In  the  preceding  pages 
a  rapid  sketch  has  been  recorded  of  the  publick  acts  of 
Mr.  Jefferson  during  the  singularly  eventful  period  in 
which  he  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  government  in 
Virginia.  The  truth  of  those  facts  may  be  relied  on. 
From  them,  a  reader  of  the  present  day,  far  removed 
from  the  bustle  and  feelings  of  the  times,  may  form  a 
calm  judgement  of  the  principles  and  talents  of  the  man, 
when  placed  in  this  station  of  unexpected  difficulty. 
There  is  little  danger  in  asserting,  that  such  a  judge- 
ment will  be  as  favourable  to  the  zeal  and  talents  of  the 
statesman,  as  it  will  be  honourable  to  the  feelings  and 
patriotism  of  the  man.  It  would,  therefore,  seem  almost, 
useless  to  record  imputed  errours  and  unfounded  cha^ 


134  LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON. 

ges  with  regard  to  him,  which  have  passed  into  oblivion 
by  the  lapse  of  years,  were  it  not  in  some  degree  a 
duty,  not  to  pass  unnoticed,  events  which,  in  their  own 
day  at  least,  excited  considerable  attention. 

The  meeting  of  the  legislature  at  Staunton  was  at- 
tended by  several  members  who  had  not  been  present 
at  Richmond  at  the  period  of  Arnold's  incursion.  One 
of  these,  Mr.  George  Nicholas,  actuated,  it  is  said,  by 
no  unkind  feelings,  yet,  it  must  be  acknowledged,  with 
a  patriotism  somewhat  too  ardent,  accused  the  late  Gov- 
ernour  of  great  remissness  in  his  measures  on  that  oc- 
casion, and  moved  for  an  inquiry  relative  to  them.  To 
this  Mr.  Jefferson  nor  his  friends  had  the  least  objec- 
Jion,  nor  did  they  make  the  slightest  opposition.  The 
ensuing  session  of  the  legislature  was  the  period  fixed 
ibr  the  investigation,  but  before  it  arrived,  Mr.  Nicho- 
las, convinced  that  the  charges  were  unfounded,  in  the 
most  honourable  and  candid  manner  declined  the  far- 
ther prosecution  of  the  affair.  In  the  mean  time,  that 
he  might  be  placed  on  equal  grounds  for  meeting  the 
inquiry,  one  of  the  representatives  of  his  county  re- 
signed his  seat,  and  Mr.  Jefferson  was  unanimously 
elected  in  his  place.  When  the  house  assembled,  no 
one  appeared  to  bring  forward  the  investigation  ;  he, 
however,  rose  in  his  place,  and  recapitulating  the  char- 
ges which  had  been  made,  stated  in  brief  terms  his  own 
justification.  His  remarks  were  no  sooner  concluded, 
than  the  house  passed  unanimously  the  following 
resolution : 

"  Resolved,  That  the  sincere  thanks  of  the  General 
Assembly  be  given  to  our  former  Governour,  Thom- 
$s  Jefferson,  for  his  impartial,  upright,  and  attentive  ad- 


1IFE    OF   JEFFERSON.  13$ 

ministration  whilst  in  office.  The  Assembly  wish,  in 
the  strongest  manner,  to  declare  the  high  opinion  they 
entertain  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  ability,  rectitude,  and  in- 
tegrity, as  chief  magistrate  of  this  commonwealth,  and 
mean,  by  thus  publickly  avowing  their  opinion,  to  ob- 
viate and  to  remove  all  unmerited  censures." 

It  is  due  to  Mr.  Nicholas  to  state,  that  in  a  publica- 
tion some  time  afterwards,  he  made  an  honourable  ac- 
knowledgment of  the  erroneous  views  he  had  enter- 
tained on  the  subject.  The  same  candour  has  not  mark- 
ed all  the  opponents  of  Mr.  Jefferson ;  but  we  are  not, 
however,  now  to  learn,  that  in  the  violence  of  politi- 
cal asperity,  circumstances  long  proved,  and  generally 
acknowledged  to  be  incorrect,  are  brought  forward 
with  no  inconsiderable  effrontery,  and  the  mild  and 
virtuous  must  be  content  to  wait  until  time  has  swept 
away  the  fabrications  and  assertions  of  faction,  and  con- 
firmed that  which  is  founded  in  honesty  and  truth. 

On  the  15th  June,  1781,  Mr.  Jefferson  was  appoint- 
ed, with  Mr.  Adams,  Dr.  Franklin,  Mr.  Jay,  and 
Mr.  Laurens,  a  Minister  Plenipotentiary  for  negotia- 
ting peace,  then  expected  to  be  effected  through  the  me- 
diation of  the  Empress  of  Russia;  but  such  was  the  state 
of  his  family,  that  he  could  neither  leave  it  nor  expose 
it  to  the  dangers  of  the  sea,  and  was  consequently  obli- 
ged to  decline.  In  the  autumn  of  the  next  year,  Con- 
gress having  received  assurances  that  a  general  peace 
would  be  concluded  in  the  winter  and  spring,  renewed 
his  appointment  on  the  13th  November  of  that  year. 
Two  months  before  the  last  appointment,  he  had  lost 
the  cherished  companion  of  his  life,  in  whose  affec- 
tions, unabated  on  both  sides,  he  had  lived  the  last  ten 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

years  in  unchequered  happiness.  With  the  publick  in- 
terests, the  state  of  his  mind  concurred  in  recommend- 
ing the  change  of  scene  proposed;  he  accordingly  ae* 
•ceptedthe  appointment,  and  left  Monticello  on  the  19th 
of  December,  1 782,  for  Philadelphia,  where  he  arrived 
on  the  27th.  The  minister  of  France,  Luzerne,  offer- 
ed him  a  passsage  in  the  Romulus  frigate,  and  which 
was  accepted ;  but  she  was  then  lying  a  few  miles  be- 
low Baltimore,  blocked  up  in  the  ice.  Mr.  Jefferson 
remained,  therefore,  a  month  in  Philadelphia,  looking 
over  the  papers  in  the  office  of  state,  and  possessing 
himself  of  the  general  situation  of  our  foreign  relations, 
and  then  went  to  Baltimore,  to  await  the  liberation  of 
the  frigate  -from  the  ice.  After  waiting  there  nearly 
a  -month,  ^information  was  received,  that  a  provisional 
treaty  of  peace  had  been  signed  by  our  Commission- 
ers on  the  3d  of  September,  1782,  to  become  absolute 
on  the  conclusion  of  peace  between  France  and  Great 
Britain.  Considering  his  proceeding  to  Europe  as  now 
of  no  utility  to  the  publick,  he  returned  immediately  to 
Philadelphia,  to  take  the  orders  of  Congress,  and  was 
excused  by  them  from  further  proceeding.  He  there- 
fore returned  home,  and  arrived  there  on  the  15th  of 
May,  1783. 

On  the  sixth  of  June,  1783,  Mr.  Jefferson  was  again 
elected  a  delegate  to  Congress,  the  appointment  to  take 
place  on  the  1st  of  November  ensuing,  when  that  of 
the  existing  delegation  would  expire.  He  according- 
ly left  home  on  the  16th  of  October,  arrived  at  Tren- 
ton, where  Congress  was  sitting,  on  the  3d  November, 
and  took  his  seat  on  the  4th,  on  which  day  Congress 
adjourned,  to  meet  at  Annapolis  on  the  26th. 


LfFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  137 

'"•Congress,"  says  he,  "had  now  become  a  very 
^small  body,  and  the  members  very  remiss  in  their  at- 
tendance on  its  duties,  insomuch  that  a  majority  of  tho 
states,  necessary  by  the  Confederation  to  constitutes 
house,  even  for  minor  business,  did  not  assemble  until 
the  13th  of  December. 

In  this  body,  Mr.  Jefferson,  as  was  to  be  expected, 
took  a  prominent  station,  and  became,  at  once,  engaged 
in  all  the  principal  measures  that  occupied  the  publick 
attention.  Among  other  services  rendered  by  him,  was 
that  of  establishing  a  standard  of  value  for  the  country, 
and  the  adoption  of  a  money  unit.  "They,"  (Con- 
gress,) says  Mr.  Jefferson,  "as  early  as  January  7,  1782, 
had  turned  their  attention  to  the  moneys  current  in  Tthe 
several  states,  and  had  directed  the  Financier,  Robert 
Morris,  to  report  to  them  a  table  of  rates,  at  which  the 
foreign  coins  should  be  received  at  the  treasury.  That 
officer,  or  rather  his  assistant,  Gouverneur  Morris, 
answered  them  on  the  15th,  in  an  able  and  elaborate 
statement  of  the  denominations  of  money  current  in  the 
several  states,  and  of  the  comparative  value  of  the 
foreign  coins  chiefly  in  circulation  with  us.  He  went 
into  the  consideration  of  the  necessity  of  establishing 
a  standard  of  value  with  us,  and  of  the  adoption  of  a 
money  unit.  He  proposed  for  that  unit,  such  a  fraction 
of  pure  silver  as  would  be  a  common  measure  of  the 
penny  of  every  state,  without  leaving  a  fraction.  This 
common  divisor  he  found  to  be  y^  of  a  dollar,  or  T1\  o 
of  the  crown  sterling.  The  value  of  a  dollar  was, 
therefore,  to  be  expressed  by  1440  units,  and  of  a  crown 
by  1600;  each  unit  containing  a  quarter  of  a  grain  of 
fine  silver.  Congress  turning  again  their  attention  to 
13 


138  LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON. 

this  subject  the  following  year,  the  Financier,  by  a 
letter  of  April  30,  1783,  further  explained  and  urged 
the  unit  he  had  proposed,  but  nothing  more  was  done 
on  it  until  the  ensuing  year,  when  it  was  again  taken 
up,  and  referred  to  a  committee,  of  which  I  was  a 
member.  The  general  views  of  the  Financier  were 
sound,  and  the  principle  was  ingenious  oh  which  he 
proposed  to  found  his  unit ;  but  it  was  too  minute  for 
ordinary  use,  too  laborious  for  computation,  either  by 
the  head  or  in  figures.  The  price  of  a  loaf  of  bread, 
j\  of  a  dollar,  would  be  72  units.  A  pound  of  butter, 
j  of  a  dollar,  288  units.  A  horse,  or  bullock,  of  eighty 
dollars'  value,  would  require  a  notation  of  six  figures, 
to  wit,  115,200;  and  the  publick  debt,  suppose  of 
eighty  millions,  would  require  twelve  figures,  to  wit, 
115,200,000,000  units.  Such  a  system  of  money- 
arithmetick  would  be  entirely  unmanageable  for  the 
common  purposes  of  society.  I  proposed,  therefore, 
instead  of  this,  to  adopt  the  dollar  as  our  unit  of  account 
and  payment,  and  that  its  divisions  and  subdivisions 
should  be  in  the  decimal  ratio.  I  wrote  some  notes  on 
the  subject,  which  I  submitted  to  the  consideration  of 
the  Financier.  I  received  his  answer,  and  adherence 
to  his  general  system,  only  agreeing  to  take  for  his 
unit  one  hundred  of  those  he  first  proposed,  so  that  a 
dollar  should  be  14T\°o>  and  a  crown  16  units.  I  re- 
plied to  this,  and  printed  my  Notes  and  Reply  on  a 
flying  sheet,  which  I  put  into  the  hands  of  the  members 
of  Congress  for  consideration,  and  the  committee  agreed 
to  report  on  my  principle.  This  was  adopted  the  en- 
suing year,  and  is  the  system  which  now  prevails. 
The  division  into  dimes,  cents,  and  mills,  is  now  so 


LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON.  139 

well  understood,  that  it  would  be  easy  of  introduction 
into  the  kindred  branches  of  weights  and  measures. 
I  use,  when  I  travel,  an  Odometer  of  Ckrke's  inven- 
tion, which  divides  the  mile  into  cents,  and  I  find  every 
one  comprehends  a  distance  readily,  when  stated  to 
him  in  miles  and  cents  ;  so  he  would  in  feet  and  cents, 
pounds  and  cents,  &c." 

I  will  again  extract,  from  the  memoirs  of  Mr.  Jef- 
ferson, what  follows  below,  for  the  sake  of  introducing 
a  practical  anecdote  from  Dr.  Franklin :  "  The  re- 
missness  of  Congress,  and  their  permanent  session, 
began  to  be  a  subject  of  uneasiness  ;  and  even  some  of 
the  legislatures  had  recommended  to  them  intermis- 
sions, and  periodical  sessions.  As  the  Confederation 
had  made  no  provision  for  a  visible  head  of  the  gov- 
ernment during  vacations  of  Congress,  and  such  a  one 
was  necessary  to  superintend  the  executive  business, 
to  receive  and  communicate  with  foreign  ministers  and 
nations,  and  to  assemble  Congress  on  sudden  and  ex- 
traordinary emergencies,  I  proposed,  early  in  April, 
the  appointment  of  a  committee  to  be  called  the  "  Com- 
mittee of  the  States,"  to  consist  of  a  member  from  each 
state,  who  should  remain  in  session  during  the  recess 
of  Congress  ;  that  the  functions  of  Congress  should  be 
divided  into  executive  and  legislative,  the  latter  to  be 
reserved,  and  the  former,  by  a  general  resolution,  to  be 
delegated  to  that  committee.  This  proposition  was 
afterwards  agreed  to  ;  a  committee  appointed,  who  af- 
terwards entered  on  duty  on  the  subsequent  adjourn- 
ment of  Congress,  quarrelled  very  soon,  split  into  two 
parties,  abandoned  their  post,  and  left  the  government 
without  any  visible  head,  until  the  next  meeting  of 


HO  LIFE    Or    JEFFERSON. 

Congress.  We  have  since  seen  the  same  thing  take 
place  in  the  Directory  of  France  ;  and  I  believe  it  will 
for  ever  take  place  in  any  Executive  consisting  of  a 
plurality.  Our  plan  best,  I  believe,  combines  wisdom 
and  practicability,  by  providing  a  plurality  of  counsel- 
lors, but  a  single  arbiter  for  ultimate  decision.  I  was 
in  France  when  we  heard  of  this  schism  and  separation 
of  our  committee,  and  speaking  with  Dr.  Franklin  of 
this  singular  disposition  of  men  to  quarrel,  and  divide 
into  parties,  he  gave  his  sentiments,  as  usual,  by  way 
of  apologue.  He  mentioned  the  Eddystone  lighthouse; 
in  the  British  channel,  as  being  built  on  a  rock,  in  the 
mid-channel,  totally  inaccessible  in  winter,  from  the 
boisterous  character  of  that  sea,  in  that  season  ;  that, 
therefore,  for  the  two  keepers,  and  there  are  only  two, 
employed  to  keep  up  the  lights,  all  provisions  for  the 
winter  were  necessarily  carried  to  them  in  autumn,  as 
they  could  never  be  visited  again  till  the  return  of  the 
milder  season  ;  that  on  the  first  practicable  day  in  the 
spring,  a  boat  puts  off  to  them  with  fresh  supplies. 
The  boatmen  met  at  the  door  one  of  the  keepers,  and 
accosted  him  with  a  '  How  goes  it,  friend?'  'Very 
well.1  '  How  is  your  companion?'  'I  do  not  know.1 
'Don't  know? — is  he  not  here  ?'  'I  can't  tell.'  'Have 
you  not  seen  him  to-day?'  'No.'  'When  did  you 
see  him  ?'  '  Not  since  last  fall.'  '  You  have  killed 
him.'  *  Not  I,  indeed.'  They  were  about  to  lay  hold 
of  him,  as  having  certainly  murdered  his  companion  ; 
but  he  desired  them  to  go  up  stairs  and  examine  for 
themselves.  They  went  up,  and  there  found  the  other 
keeper.  They  had  quarrelled,  it  seems,  soon  after  being- 
left  there,  had  divided  into  two  parties,  assigned  the 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  141 

«ares  below  to  one,  and  those  above  to  the  other,  and 
had  never  spoken  to,  or  seen,  one  another  since." 

The  following  advice  is  good,  and  even  at  the  pre- 
sent day  is  not  totally  inapplicable  :  "  Our  body  was 
little  numerous,  but  very  contentious.  Day  after  day 
was  wasted  on  the  most  unimportant  questions.  A 
member,  one  of  those  afflicted  with  the  morbid  rage  of 
debate,  of  an  ardent  mind,  prompt  imagination,  and  co- 
pious flow  of  words,  who  heard  with  impatience  any 
logick  which  was  not  his  own,  sitting  near  me  on  some 
occasion  of  a  trifling  but  wordy  debate,  asked  me  how 
1  could  sit  in  silence,  hearing  so  much  false  reasoning 
which  a  word  should  refute?  I  observed  to  him,  that 
to  refute  indeed  was  easy,  but  to  silence  impossible; 
that  in  measures  brought  forward  by  myself,  I  took  the 
labouring  oar,  as  was  incumbent  on  me ;  but  that  in 
general,  I  was  willing  to  listen ;  that  if  every  sound 
argument  or  objection  was  used  by  some  one  or  other 
of  the  numerous  debaters,  it  was  enough;  if  not,  I 
thought  it  sufficient  to  suggest  the  omission,  without 
going  into  a  repetition  of  what  had  been  already  said 
by  others :  that  this  was  a  waste  and  abuse  of  the  time 
and  patience  of  the  house,  which  could  not  be  justified. 
And  I  believe,  that  if  the  members  of  deliberative  bo- 
dies were  to  observe  this  course  generally,  they  would 
do  in  a  day,  what  takes  them  a  week;  and  it  is  really 
more  questionable,  than  may  at  first  be  thought,  wheth- 
er Bonaparte's  dumb  legislature,  which  said  nothing, 
and  did  much,  may  not  be  preferable  to  one  which  talks 
much,  and  does  nothing.  I  served  with  General 
Washington  in  the  legislature  of  Virginia,  before  the 
revolution,  and  during  it,  with  Dr.  Franklin  in  Con- 
13* 


142  LIFE  OF  JEFFERSOHT. 

gress.  I  never  heard  either  of  them  speak  ten  min- 
utes at  a  time,  nor  to  any  but  the  main  point  which 
was  to  decide  the  question.  They  laid  their  shoulders 
to  the  great  points,  knowing  that  the  little  ones  would 
follow  of  themselves.  If  the  present  Congress  errs  in 
too  much  talking,  how  can  it  be  otherwise,  in  a  body  to 
which  the  people  send  one  hundred  and  fifty  lawyers, 
whose  trade  it  is  to  question  every  thing,  yield  noth- 
ing, and  talk  by  the  hour?  That  one  hundred  and 
fifty  lawyers  should  do  business  together,  ought  not  to- 
be  expected." 

Early  in  December,  letters  were  received  from  the 
commissioners  in  France,  accompanied  with  the  de- 
finitive treaty  between  the  United  States  and  Great 
Britain,  which  had  been  signed  at  Paris  on  the  third 
of  September.  They  were  immediately  referred  to  a 
committee,  of  which  Mr.  Jefferson  was  chairman. — 
On  the  fourteenth  of  January,  1784,  on  the  report  of 
this  committee,  the  treaty  was  unanimously  ratified; 
thus  putting  an  end  to  the  eventful  struggle  between 
the  two  countries,  and  confirming  the  independence 
which  had  already  been  gained. 

About  this  period  an  opportunity  was  offered  to  Mr. 
Jefferson,  of  expressing  again,  as  he  had  already  so 
frequently  done,  his  earnest  desire  to  provide  for  the 
emancipation  of  the  negroes,  and  the  entire  abolition 
of  slavery  in  the  United  States.  Being  appointed 
chairman  of  a  committee  to  which  was  assigned  the 
task  of  forming  a  plan  for  the  temporary  government 
of  the  Western  Territory,  he  introduced  into  it  the  fol- 
lowing clause:  "That  after  the  year  1800  of  the 
ehristian  era,  there  shall  be  neither  slavery,  nor  invol^ 


OP  JEFFERSOW. 

untary  servitude  in  any  of  the  said  states,  otherwise 
than  in  punishment  of  crimes,  whereof  the  party  shall* 
hare  heen  convicted  to  have  been  personally  guilty." 
When  the  report  of  the  committee  was  presented  to 
Congress,  these  words  were,  however,  struck  out. 

On  the  7th  of  May,  Congress  resolved  that  a  Min- 
ister Plenipotentiary  should  be  appointed,  in  addition 
to  Mr.  Adams  and  Dr.  Franklin,  for  negotiating  trea- 
ties of  commerce  with  foreign  nations,  and  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son was  elected  to  that  duty.  He  accordingly  left  An- 
napolis on  the  llth,  taking  with  him  his  eldest  daugh- 
ter, then  at  Philadelphia,  and  proceeded  to  Boston  in 
quest  of  a  passage.  While  passing  through  the  differ- 
ent states,  he  informed  himself  of  the  condition  of  the 
commerce  of  each,  went  on  to  New  Hampshire  with 
the  same  view,  and  returned  to  Boston.  Thence  he 
sailed  on  the  5th  of  July  in  a  merchant  ship  bound  to 
Cowes :  which,  after  a  pleasant  voyage  of  nineteen 
days,  reached  the  place  of  her  destination  on  the  26th, 
After  being  detained  there  a  few  days  by  the  indispo- 
sition of  his  daughter,  he  embarked  on  the  30th  for 
Havre,  arrived  there  on  the  31st,  left  it  on  the  3d  of 
August,  and  arrived  at  Paris  on  the  6th.  He  called 
immediately  on  Dr.  Franklin,  at  Passy,  communicated 
to  him  their  charge,  and  wrote  to  Mr.  Adams,  then  at 
the  Hague,  to  join  them  at  Paris. 

"  Before  I  had  left  America,"  states  Mr.  Jefferson  in 
his  memoirs,  "  that  is  to  say,  in  the  year  1781,  I  had 
received  a  letter  from  M.  de  Marbois,  of  the  French 
legation  in  Philadelphia,  informing  me,  he  had  been 
instructed  by  his  government  to  obtain  such  statistical 
accounts  of  the  different  states  of  our  Union,  as  might. 


144  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

be  useful  for  their  information  ;  and  addressing  to  m^ 
a  number  of  queries  relative  to  the  state  of  Virginia. 
I  had  always  made  it  a  practice,  whenever  an  oppor- 
tunity occurred  of  obtaining  any  information  of  our 
country,  which  might  be  of  use  to  me  in  any  station, 
publick  or  private,  to  commit  it  to  writing.  These 
memoranda  were  on  loose  papers,  bundled  up  without 
order,  and  difficult  of  recurrence,  when  I  had  occasion 
for  a  particular  one.  I  thought  this  a  good  occasion 
to  imbody  their  substance,  which  I  did  in  the  order  of 
Mr.  Marbois'  queries,  so  as  to  answer  his  wish,  and  to 
arrange  them  for  my  own  use.  Some  friends,  to  whom 
they  were  occasionally  communicated,  wished  for  co- 
pies ;  but  their  volume  rendering  this  too  laborious  by 
hand,  I  proposed  to  get  a  few  printed  for  their  gratifica- 
tion. I  was  asked  such  a  price,  however,  as  exceeded 
the  importance  of  the  object.  On  my  arrival  at  Paris, 
I  found  it  could  be  done  for  a  fourth  of  what  I  had 
been  asked  here.  I  therefore  corrected  and  enlarged 
them,  and  had  two  hundred  copies  printed,  under  the 
title  of '  Notes  on  Virginia.'  I  gave  a  very  few  copies 
to  some  particular  friends  in  Europe,  and  sent  the  rest 
to  my  friends  in  America.  An  European  copy,  by 
the  death  of  the  owner,  got  into  the  hands  of  a  book- 
seller, who  engaged  its  translation,  and  when  ready 
for  the  press,  communicated  his  intentions  and  manu- 
script to  me,  suggesting  that  1  should  correct  it,  without 
asking  any  other  permission  for  the  publication.  I 
never  had  seen  so  wretched  an  attempt  at  translation. 
Interverted,  abridged,  mutilated,  and  often  reversing 
the  sense  of  the  original,  I  found  it  a  blotch  of  errours 
from  beginning  to  end,  I  corrected  some  of  the  most 


LIFE    OF   JEFFERSON.  14& 

material,  and  in  that  form  it  was  printed  in  French. 
A  London  bookseller,  on  seeing  the  translation,  re- 
quested me  to  permit  him  to  print  the  English  original. 
I  thought  it  best  to  do  so,  to  let  the  world  see  that  it 
I  was  not  really  so  bad  as  the  French  translation  had 
made  it  appear."  Such  was  the  origin  and  history  of 
the  celebrated  "  Notes  on  Virginia." 

This  work  comes  recommended  to  us  by  its  bland 
philosophy,  the  variety  of  its  information,  and  the 
charming  simplicity  of.  its  style.  In  it,  the  fanciful 
and  absurd  theories  of  BufFon  receive  a  gentle  but 
most  convincing  refutation  j  and  the  greatest  philoso- 
pher of  his  day  is  prostrated  by  a  citizen  of  a  then 
almost  unknown  and  despised  country.  And  when 
demanded,  Mr.  Jefferson  can  rise  with  his  subject,  and 
touch  the  pinnacle  of  loftiness  in  thought  and  sublimity 
of  conception.  But,  as  has  been  truly  remarked,  it  is 
"  in  the  interesting  picture  of  Indian  habits  and  man- 
ners ;  the  records  of  their  untutored  eloquence;  the 
vindication  of  their  bravery,  their  generosity,  and  their 
virtue  ;  in  the  delineation  of  the  character,  the  fidelity, 
the  kindly  feelings  of  the  enslaved  negro  race,  whose 
champion  he  ever  was,  alike  in-  the  times  of  colonial 
subjection,  and  of  established  freedom ;  in  his  investi- 
gations relative  to  religious *and  political  liberty;  in 
his  researches  in  science,  philosophy,  and  antiquity — 
that  every  reader  will  find  much  to  instruct  and  amuse. 
He  will  not  perhaps  regret  that  he  chose  publick  life 
as  the  great  theatre  of  his  ambition,  but  he  will  ac- 
knowledge, that  his  fame  would  probably  have  been  as, 
great  in  the  more  peaceful  pursuits  of  science." 

In  this  work  is  also  contained  the  famous  speech  c| 


146  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

Logan,  the  Mingo  chief,  which  seems  to  be  no  less 
gratifying  to  the  nobility  of  intellect,  than  attractive 
as  the  theme  of  schoolboy  declamation.  Whether 
this  speech,  delivered  to  Lord  Dunmore,  be  really  the 
speech  of  this  implacable  warriour,  or  whether  it  was 
coined  for  him  by  the  poetick  fancy  of  his  messenger, 
it  would  be  difficult  to  decide.  It  is  certainly  charac- 
terized by  the  laconick  and  figurative  style  of  the  In- 
dians. It  would  require,  however,  a  keen  vision  to 
perceive  in  it  that  "tender  sentiment"  and  "sublime 
morality,"  which  some  of  the  historians  of  Virginia  say 
it  possesses.  Is  there  any  thing  either  tender  or  sub- 
lime in  the  declaration  of  savage  vengeance,  and  the 
confession  of  having  glutted  himself  with  the  blood  of 
his  enemies  ?  The  end  of  this  cormorant  chieftain  cor- 
responded with  his  life.  After  "having  killed  many, 
and  glutted  his  vengeance  with  blood,"  he  went  to  De- 
troit, on  his  return  from  which  place  he  was  murdered. 
After  the  return  of  peace  had  compelled  Logan  to  for- 
bear the  use  of  the  tomahawk  and  scalping  knife,  he  be- 
came addicted  to  the  Indian's  besetting  sin,  to  that  de- 
grading and  debasing  vice  which  paralyzes  the  phy- 
sical powers  of  man,  which  bows  his  intellect  to  im- 
becility, and  brings  destruction  on  his  temporal  for-* 
tunes  and  future  prospects — he  became  a  confirmed 
and  abandoned  sot.  The  immoderate  use  of  brandy 
had  stupified  his  mental  powers,  and  mingled-  with  the 
demoniack  ferocity  of  the  savage,  the  delirious  ravings 
of  the  drunkard. 

But  to  return  from  this  digression.  Full  powers 
were  given  by  Congress  to  Mr.  Jefferson  and  the  other 
commissioners  appointed  by  them,  to  form  alliances  of 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  147 

amity  and  commerce  with  foreign  states,  and  on  the 
most  liberal  principles.  Their  efforts,  however,  do 
not  appear  to  have  been  very  successful,  and  indeed, 
after  some  reflection,  and  experience,  it  was  thought 
better  not  to  urge  them  too  strongly,  but  to  leave  such 
regulations  to  flow  voluntarily  from  the  amicable  dispo- 
sitions and  the  evident  interests  of  the  several  nations. 
This  necessity  is  not  perhaps  so  much  to  be  regretted 
from  any  loss  sustained  in  consequence  of  it  to  the 
United  States,  as  from  the  circumstance  that  it  suffer- 
ed to  pass  unimproved  so  fortunate  an  opportunity  of 
introducing  into  the  law  of  nations,  those  honourable, 
humane,  and  just  stipulations  with  regard  to  privateer- 
ing, blockades,  contraband,  and  freedom  of  fisheries, 
which,  at  the  suggestion  of  Dr.  Franklin,  the  commis- 
sioners had  been  instructed  to  introduce,  if  possible, 
into  all  the  conventions  they  might  form. 

Since  the  treaty  of  peace,  the  English  government 
had  been  particularly  distant  and  unaccommodating  in 
its  relations  with  the  United  States ;  but  at  one  period 
of  Mr.  Jefferson's  residence  abroad,  it  was  supposed 
that  there  were  some  symptoms  of  better  disposition 
shown  towards  us.  On  this  account  he  left  Paris,  and 
on  his  arrival  at  London,  agreed  with  Mr.  Adams  on 
a  very  summary  form  of  treaty,  proposing  "  an  ex- 
change of  citizenship  for  our  citizens,  our  ships,  and 
our  productions  generally,  except  as  to  office."  At  the 
usual  presentation,  however,  to  the  King  and  Queen, 
both  Mr.  Adams  and  himself  were  received  in  the 
most  ungracious  manner,  and  they  at  once  discovered, 
that  the  ulcerations  of  mind  in  that  quarter,  left  noth- 
ing to  be  expected  on  the  particular  subject  of  the  visit. 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

A  few  vague  and  ineffectual  conferences  followed, 
after  which  he  returned  to  Paris.  He  did  not,  howev- 
er, cease  to  keep  a  watchful  eye  on  the  proceedings 
and  conduct  of  the  British  nation,  and  his  letters  to  the 
department  of  foreign  affairs  contain  many  facts  in  re- 
gard to  it,  and  many  instances  of  the  jealous  and  un- 
friendly feeling  which  sprung  from  and  long  survived 
the  misfortunes  of  her  colonial  conflict. 

Of  the  personal  character  of  the  monarch,  Mr.  Jef- 
ferson's estimate  is  certainly  not  very  high,  and  the 
account  he  gives  of  the  conduct  and  dispositions  of  his 
son,  the  late  King,  as  it  agrees  in  the  main  with  other 
accounts — as  it  was  written  solely  for  private  and  con- 
fidential information — and  as  it  could  be  founded  on 
no  party  or  local  views — may  serve  to  confirm  the 
similar  relations  current  in  those  times. 

"As  the  character  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  is  becom- 
ing interesting,  I  have  endeavoured  to  learn  what  it 
truly  is.  This  is  less  difficult  in  his  case,  than  in  that 
of  other  persons  of  his  rank,  because  he  has  taken  no 
pains  to  hide  himself  from  the  world.  The  informa- 
tion I  most  rely  on,  is  from  a  person  here  with  whom 
I  am  intimate,  vyho  divides  his  time  between  Paris  and 
London,  an  Englishman  by  birth,  of  truth,  sagacity, 
and  science.  He  is  of  a  circle,  when  in  London,  which 
has  good  opportunities  of  knowing  the  Prince:  but  he 
has  also  himself  had  special  occasions  of  verifying 
their  information  by  his  own  personal  observation. — 
He  happened,  when  last  in  London,  to  be  invited  to  a 
dinner  of  three  persons.  The  Prince  came  by  chance, 
and  made  the  fourth.  He  ate  half  a  leg  of  mutton ; 
did  not  taste  of  small  dishes,  because  small;  drank 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  140 

C/hampaign  and  Burgundy  as  small  beer  during  din- 
ner, and  Bordeaux  after  dinner,  as  the  rest  of  the  com- 
pany. Upon  the  whole,  he  ate  as  much  as  the  other 
three,  and  drank  about  two  bottles  of  wine,  without 
seeming  to  feel  it.  My  informant  sat  next  him,  and 
being  till  then  Unknown  to  the  Prince,  personally, 
(though  not  by  character,)  and  lately  from  France,  the 
Prince  confined  his  conversation  almost  entirely  to 
him.  Observing  to  the  Prince  that  he  spoke  French 
without  the  least  foreign  accent,  the  Prince  told  him, 
that,  when  very  young,  his  father  had  put  only  French 
servants  about  him,  and  that  it  was  to  that  circum- 
stance he  owed  his  pronunciation.  He  led  him  from 
this  to  give  an  account  of  his  education,  the  total  of 
which  was  the  learning  a  little  Latin.  He  has  not  a 
single  element  of  mathematicks,  of  natural  or  moral 
philosophy,  or  of  any  other  science  on  earth,  nor,  has 
the  society  he  has  kept  been  such  as  to  supply  the  void 
of  education.  It  has  been  that  of  the  lowest,  the  most 
illiterate  and  profligate  persons  of  the  kingdom,  with- 
out choice  of  rank  or  mind,  and  with  wliom  the  sub- 
jects of  conversation  are  only  horses,  Or  drinking 
matches,  and  in  terms  the  most  vulgar.  The  young 
nobility  who  begin  by  associating  with  him,  soon 
leave  him,  disgusted  with  the  insupportable  profligacy 
of  his  society  j  and  Mr.  Fox,  who  has  been  supposed 
his  favourite,  and  not  over-nice  in  the  choice  of  com- 
pany, would  never  keep  his  company  habitually.  In 
fact,  he  never  associated  with  a  man  of  sense.  He  has 
not  a  single  idea  of  justice,  morality,  religion,  or  of  the 
rights  of  men,  nor  any  anxiety  for  the  opinion  of  the 
world.  He  carries  that  indifference  for  fame  so  far, 
14 


; 

150  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

that  he  would  probably  not  be  hurt  were  he  to  lose  his 
throne,  provided  he  could  be  assured  of  having  al- 
ways meat,  drink,  horses,  and  women.  In  the  article 
of  women,  nevertheless,  he  is  become  more  correct, 
since  his  connexion  with  Mrs.  Fitzherbert,  who  is  an 
honest  and  wqrthy  woman :  he  is  even  less  crapulous 
than  he  was.  He  had  a  fine  person,  but  it  is  becoming 
more  coarse.  He  possesses  good  native  common 
sense;  is  affable,  polite,  and  very  good  humoured. 
Saying  to  my  informant,  on  another  occasion,  'your 
friend,  such  a  one,  dined  with  me  yesterday,  and  I 
made  him  damned  drunk;'  he  replied,  'I  am  sorry  for 
it;  I  had  heard  that  your  royal  highness  had  left  off 
drinking:'  the  Prince  laughed,  tapped  him  on  the 
shoulder  very  good  naturedly,  without  saying  a  word, 
or  ever  after  showing  any  displeasure.  The  Duke  of 
York,  who  was  for  some  time  cried  up  as  the  prodigy 
of  the  family,  is  as  profligate,  and  of  less  understand- 
ing. To  these  particular  traits,  from  a  man  of  sense 
and  truth,  it  would  be  superfluous  to  add  the  general 
terms  of  praise  or  blame  in  which  he  is  spoken  of  by 
other  persons,  in  whose  impartiality  and  penetration  I 
have  less  confidence, '  A  sample  is  better  than  a  de- 
scription. For  the  peace  of  Europe,  it  is  best  that  the 
King  should  give  such  gleamings  of  recovery,  as  would 
prevent  the  regent  or  his  ministry  from  thinking  them- 
selves firm,  and  yet,  that  he  should  not  recover." 

The  commissioners  succeeded  in  their  negotiations 
only  with  the  governments  of  Morocco  and  Prussia, 
The  treaty  with  the  latter  power  is  so  remarkable  for 
some  of  the  provisions  it  contains,  thai  it  stands  solitary 
in  diplomacy  and  national  law.  Blockades  arising 


LIFE    OF   JEFFERSON.  151 

from  all  causes,  and  of  every  description,  were  abolish- 
ed by  it ;  the  flag,  in  every  case,  covered  the  property, 
and  contrabands  were  exempted  from  confiscation, 
though  they  might  be  employed  for  the  use  of  the  cap- 
tor, on  payment  of  their  full  value.  This,  it  is  said,  is 
the  only  convention  ever  made  by  America  in  which 
the  last  stipulation  is  introduced,  nor  is  it  known  to  ex- 
ist in  any  other  modern  treaty. 

On  the  tenth  of  March,  1785,  Mr.  Jefferson  was 
unanimously  appointed  }>y  Congress  to  succeed  Dr. 
Franklin  as  minister  plenipotentiary  at  the  court  of 
Versailles ;  and  on  the  expiration  of  his  commission 
in  October,  1787,  he  was  again  elected  to  the  same 
honourable  situation.  He  remained  in  France  until 
October,  1789. 

While  in  France,  Mr.  JefTerson  was  engaged  in 
many  diplomatick  negotiations  of  considerable  impor- 
tance to  this  country,  though  not  of  sufficient  interest 
to  arrest  the  attention  of  the  general  reader,  "  The 
great  questions  which  had  so  long  occupied  the  pub- 
lick  mind,  were  fitted  to  arrest  the  attention  of  the 
most  thoughtless,  affecting  as  they  did  the  policy  of 
nations  and  the  fate  of  empires ;  but  the  details  which 
arise  out  of  the  interpretation  of  treaties,  or  the  meas- 
ures which  are  necessary  to  increase  their  effect,  and 
to  remedy  their  deficiencies,  are  interesting  only  to 
him  who  studies  the  minute  points  of  political  history. 
These  only  were  the  objects  which  could  claim  the 
attention  of  the  minister  to  France,  at  this  period ;  they 
did  not  call  forth  any  prominent  display  of  his  great 
and  various  talents,  but  they  required  no  ordinary  ad- 
dress, involved  as  they  were  by  the  skilful  intrigues  of 


152  LIFE  OF  JEFFERS01C. 

such  ministers  as  Vergennes  and  Calonne,  and  op- 
posed, for  the  most  part,  by  all  the  men  of  influence  wha 
thought  that  their  interests  might  be  compromised  or 
endangered.  Among  the  principal  benefits  then  ob- 
tained, and  continued  to  the  United  States  until  the  pe- 
riod of  the  French  revolution,  were  the  abolition  of 
several  monopolies,  and  the  free  admission  into  France 
of  tobacco,  rice,  whale  oil,  salted  fish,  and  flour ;  and 
of  the  two  latter  articles  into  the  French  West  India 
islands. 

During  his  residence  in  Europe,  Mr.  Jefferson  also 
visited  Holland,  and  his  Memoir  embraces  a  brief  but 
clear  account  of  the  fatal  revolution,  by  which  the 
Prince  of  Orange  made  himself  sovereign  of  that  re- 
publick,  so  long  and  honourably  independent.  He  also 
crossed  the  Alps,  and  travelled  through  Lombardy, 
though  he  did  not  extend  his  journey  to  the  southern 
part  of  the  peninsula.  In  returning  to  Paris,  he  visited 
all  the  principal  seaports  of  the  southern  and  western 
coasts  of  France,  and  made  many  and  interesting  ob- 
servations with  regard  to  the  culture  of  the  vine,  olive, 
and  rice,  which  were  carefully  communicated  to  his 
friends  across  the  Ailantick ;  and  he  had  reason  to  be- 
lieve, afterwards,  that  they  had  not  failed  to  produce 
benefits,  which^in  time,  will  be  of  wide-extended  utility. 

When  Mr.  Jefferson  reached  Paris,  he  found  that 
city  in  high  fermentation  from  the  early  events  of  the 
revolution ;  and  during  the  remainder  of  his  stay  in 
Europe,  his  attention  was  well  and  fully  occupied  in 
observing,  as  an  eyewitness,  the  progress  of,  the  extra- 
ordinary occurrences  which  from  that  time  took  place 
in  rapid  succession. 


L1F9    OF    JEFFERSON.  153 

Simply  as  the  representative  of  a  foreign  people,  he 
might  be  expected  to  do  this ;  but  his  situation  as  the 
minister  of  a  nation  which  was  supposed  to  have  given 
the  example,  and  by  many,  even  in  this  very  example, 
to  have  lain  a  train  for  the  subsequent  changes,  not 
only  caused  him  to  be  more  curious  and  anxious  him- 
self, but  made  him  an  object  of  interest  and  attention  to 
the  actors  in  these  new  scenes.  He  was,  from  circum- 
stances, much  acquainted  with  the  leading  patriots  of 
the  National  Assembly ;  and  as  he  came  from  a  country 
which  had  passed  successfully  through  a  similar  refor- 
mation, they  were  naturally  disposed  to  seek  his  advice 
and  place  confidence  in  his  opinions.  It  would  have 
been  affectation  to  deny  that  he  looked  with  pleasure 
on  a  successful  and  beneficial  change  of  the  French 
government,  not  merely  from  the  advantages  it  would 
bring  to  an  oppressed  nation,  but  as  ensuring  a  general 
improvement  in  the  condition  of  the  people  of  Europe, 
ground  to  the  dust  as  they  wrere  by  the  tyranny  of  their 
rulers.  But  beyond  these  wishes  he  did  not  deem  it 
just  or  proper  to  go:  and  on  receiving,  upon  one  occa- 
sion, an  official  invitation  of  the  Archbishop  of  Bor- 
deaux to  attend  and  assist  at  the  deliberations  of  an 
important  committee,  he  excused  himself  immediately, 
for  the  obvious  reason,  that  his  duties,  as  a  publick 
functionary,  forbade  him  to  interfere  in  the  internal 
transartions  of  the  country.  He  did  not,  however, 
consider  himself  restrained  from  urging  upon  his  friends 
of  the  patriotick  party,  and  especially  upon  his  intimate 
and  influential  companion,  Lafayette,  the  propriety,  on 
repeated  occasions,  of  immediate  and  seasonable  com- 
promise— of  securing  what  was  offered  by  the  govern- 
14* 


154  LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON, 

merit — and  thus,  by  degrees,  gaining  peaceably,  what 
might  be  lost  by  grasping  too  much  at  once,  or  be  won, 
as  proved  to  be  the  case,  if  as  much  ever  was  after- 
wards won,  at  sacrifices  dreadful  beyond  calculation. 
The  following  anecdote  is  a  striking  instance  taken  in 
Mr.  Jefferson's  opinions,  to  which  we  have  alluded. 

"  I  received  one  morning,"  he  says,  "  a  note  from  the 
Marquis  de  Lafayette,  informing  me,  that  he  should 
bring  a  party  of  six  or  eight  friends,  to  ask  a  dinner  of. 
me  the  next  day.  I  assured  them  of  their  welcome. 
When  they  arrived,  they  were  Lafayette  himself,  Du- 
port,  Barnave,  Alexander  Lameth,  Blacori,  Mounier, 
Maubourg,  and  Dagout.  These  were  leading  patriots, . 
of  honest  but  differing  opinions,  sensible  of  the  neces- 
sity of  effecting  a  coalition  by  mutual  sacrifices,  know- 
ing each  other,  and  not  afraid,  therefore,  to  unbosom 
themselves  mutually.  This  last  was  a  material  principle 
in  the  selection.  With  this  \iew,  the  Marquis  had 
invited  the  conference,  and  had  fixed  the  time  and  place 
inadvertently,  as  to  the  embarrassment  under  which  it. 
might  place  one.  The  cloth  being  removed,  and  wine 
set  on  the  table,  after  the  American  manner,  the  Mar- 
quis introduced  the  objects  of  the  conference,  by  sum- 
marily reminding  them  of  the  state  of  things  in  the 
Assembly,  the  course  which  the  principles  of  the  con- 
stitution were  taking,  and  the  inevitable  result,  unless 
checked  by  more  concord  among  the  patriots  them- 
selves. He  observed,  that  although  he  also  had  his  opin- 
ion, he  was  ready  to  sacrifice  it  to  that  of  his  brethren  of 
the  same  cause;  but  that  a  common  opinion  must  now 
be  formed,  or  the  aristocracy  would  carry  every  thingr 
and  that,  whatever  they  should  now  agree  on,  he,  at 


LIFE  OF  JEFFERSOlfr  155 

&e  head  of  the  national  force,  would  maintain.  The 
discussions  began  at  the  hour  of  four,  and  were  contin- 
ued till  ten  o'clock  in  the  evening;  during  which  time, 
I  was  a  silent  witness  to  a  coolness  and  candour  of  ar- 
gument, unusual  in  the  conflicts  of  political  opinions; 
to  a  logical  reasoning,  and  chaste  eloquence,  disfigur- 
ed by  no  gaudy  tinsel  of  rhetorick  or  declamation,  and 
truly  worthy  of  being  placed  in  parallel  with  the  finest 
dialogues  of  antiquity  as  handed  to  us  by  Xenophon, 
by  Plato,- and  Cicero.  But  duties  of  exculpation  were 
now  incumbent  on  me.  I  waited  on  Count  Montmo- 
rin  the  next  morning,  and  explained  to  him,  with  truth 
and  candour,  how  it  had  happened  that  my  house  had 
been  made  the  scene  of  conferences  of  such  a  charac- 
ter. He  told  me,  he  aj ready  knew  every  thing  which 
had  passed,  that  so  far  from  taking  umbrage  at  the  use 
made  of  my  house  on  that  occasion,  he  earnestly  wished 
I  would  habitually  assist  at  such  conferences,  being  sure 
I  should  be  useful  in  moderating  the  warmer  spirits, 
and  promoting  a  wholesome  and  practicable  reforma- 
tion only.  I  told  him,  I  knew  too  well  the  duties  I 
owed  to  the  King,  the  nation,  and  to  my  own  country, 
to  take  any  part  in  councils  concerning  their  internal 
government,  and  that  I  should  persevere,  with  care,  in 
the  character  of  a  neutral  and  passive  spectator,  with 
wishes  only,  and  very  sincere  ones,  that  those  meas- 
ures might  prevail  which  would  be  for  the  greatest  good 
of  the  nation.  I  have  no  doubt,  indeed,  that  this  con- 
ference was  previously  known  and  approved  by  this 
honest  minister,  who  was  in  confidence  and  communi- 
cation with  the  patriots,  and  wished  for  a  reasonable,  re- 
fprm  of  the  constitution, 


t55  LTFK    OP   JEFFERSOlf. 

On  Mr.  Jefferson's  first  arrival  in  France,  (says  ff 
discerning  writer,)  he  had  not  failed  to  perceive,  in  the 
situation  of  the  government,  and  the  conduct  of  the 
thinking  part  of  the  community,  strong  indications  of 
the  necessity  of  a  change,  and  a  desire  to  arouse  the 
nation  from  the  sleep  of  despotism  into  which  it  was 
sunk.  Through  the  medium  of  the  press ;  in  conversa- 
tion and  the  intercourse  of  fashionable  life:  by  the 
power  and  singular  influence  of  men  of  letters  then 
prevailing ;  these  sentiments  were  disseminated  with 
new  and  unheard  of  freedom.  In  all  societies,  male 
and  female,  politicks  had  become  the  universal  theme ; 
the  witty,  the  rich,  the  noble,  and  the  gay,  indulged  in 
them,  perhaps,  as  much  from  fashion  as  reflection ;  the 
young  women  joined  the  patriotick  party  as  the  mode; 
the  young  men  naturally  followed  in  their  train.  The 
excessive  dissipation  of  the  Queen  and  the  court,  the 
corrupt  and  exclusive  power  of  a  small  portion  of  the 
nobility  who  controlled  it,  the  abuses  of  the  pension 
list,  the  incredible  confusion  of  the  finances,  the  ex- 
hausted treasury  amid  a  load  of  taxes,  had  so  alarmed 
and  paralyzed  the  ministers,  that  they  had  no  resource, 
but  themselves  to  make  the  first  step  in  the  revolution, 
by  calling  in  at  once  the  assistance  of  a  popular  assem- 
bly. From  this  period,  the  tide  swelled  on  irresistibly, 
bringing  by  degrees  one  improvement  after  another, 
and  washing  away  successively  the  long  established 
mounds,  which  ages  of  submission  on  one  hand,  and 
tyranny  on  the  other,  had  erected  against  liberty  and 
right;  but  at  last,  unfortunately,  overwhelming,  for  a 
lime,  the  landmarks  which  justice  and  reason  had 
formed,,  as  the  necessary  protection  of  human  and  so 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  157 

«ial  institutions.  Nothing,  indeed,  is  more  extraordi- 
nary in  the  history  of  the  French  revolution,  than  the 
rapid  and  total  subversion  which  was  effected  in  the 
institutions  of  the  country.  In  such  events,  it  happens, 
for  the  most  part,  that  there  is  rather  a  removal  of  indi- 
viduals, a  modification  of  existing  systems,  a  return  to 
previous  rights  claimed  or  ascertained,  which  have 
been  infringed :  but  here  it*  was  a  violent  exchange 
from  one  extreme  to  the  other — the  total  destruction  in 
theory  and  in  practice,  of  the  existing  state  of  things — 
the  building  up  of  a  new  form  of  government  from  the 
very  foundations- — the  establishment  of  the  wildest  re- 
publicanism on  the  ruins  of  the  strictest  despotism. — 
Perhaps  this 'arose  from  the  fact,  (continues  the  same 
writer,)  that  there  existed,  in  truth,  but  two  classes  of 
society,  in  regard,  at  least,  to  political  institutions;  the 
one  very  small  in  number,  and  in  actual  power,  who> 
were  the  oppressors ;  the  other  embracing  the  strength, 
sinews,  and  resources  of  the  nation,  vast  in  numbers, 
but  utterly  trampled.  There  was,  indeed,  no  interme- 
diate body — no  true  aristocracy ;  that  which  existed, 
was  merely  such  in  name,  and  by  its  titles:  but  it  pos- 
sessed no  real  influence  or  control.  This  circum- 
stance placed,  at  the  commencement  of  the  struggle, 
the  right  to  frame  a  new  government,  not  in. the  hands 
of  those  who  would  merely  have  changed  the  form  of 
oppression,  but  of  the  entire  mass  of  the  people  them- 
selves, who  had  never  been  accustomed,  in  fact,  to  the 
existence  of  any  large,  intermediate,  and  powerful  classK 
between  them  and  the  legal  power ;  and  who,  conse- 
quently, in  subverting  or  modifying  that,  looked  only 
to  a  corresponding  augmentation  and  security  of  their 


!58  LIFE    OF   JEFFERSON. 

own  rights.  In  this  respect,  the  revolution  of  France 
is  strongly  contrasted  with  that  of  England,  which 
was  really  a  revolution  of  the  nobility  and  landed  ar- 
istocracy alone,  bringing  with  it  no  great  improvement 
in  the  popular  institutions  or  privileges,  and  certainly 
leaving  untouched,  an  immense  mass  of  antiquated  ab- 
surdity in  laws  and  institutions,  which  a  convulsion  of 
more  popular  character  could  not  have  failed  to  demol- 
ish, but  which  now  seems  to  be  regarded  either  as  a 
vital  or  desirable  part  of  the  constitution,  or  as  so 
closely  interwoven  with  it  by  time,  that  the  abolition 
might  endanger  the  destruction  of  what  it  is  deemed 
best  to  preserve  at  all  hazards. 

The  residence  of  Mr.  Jefferson  in  France  did  not 
extend  to  that  fatal  period  of  the  French  revolution, 
when  its  atrocities  drew  down  upon  it  the  execrations 
even  of  those  who  rejoiced  at  the  rising  of  the  day-star 
of  liberty ;  and  the  copious  details  which  his  letters 
embrace,  render  them,  therefore,  never-failing  sources 
of  interest  and  pleasure.  It  will  not  be  uninteresting 
to  extract  from  these  the  account  he  has  given  of  several 
of  the  well  known  historical  personages  of  the  period. 
They  have  at  least  the  merit  of  having  been  sketched 
at  the  time,  under  circumstances  of  observation  pecu- 
liarly favourable. 

"  The  Marquis  de  Lafayette"  he  writes,  "is  a  most 
valuable  auxiliary  to  me.  His  zeal  is  unbounded,  and 
his  weight  with  those  in  power,  great.  His  education 
having  been  merely  military,  commerce  was  an  un- 
known field  to  him.  But  his  good  sense  enabling  him 
to  comprehend  perfectly  whatever  is  explained  to  him, 
his  agency  has  been  very  efficacious.  He  has  a  great 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  159 

•deal  of  sound  genius,  is  well  remarked  by  the  King, 
and  is  rising  in  popularity.  He  >  has  nothing  against 
him  but  the  suspicion  of  republican  principles.  I  think 
he  will  one  day  be  of  the  ministry.  The  Count  de 
Vergennes  is  ill  The  possibility  of  his  recovery, 
renders  it  dangerous  for  us  to  express  a  doubt  of  it; 
but  he  is  in  danger.  He  is  a  great  minister  in  Euro- 
pean affairs,  but  has  very  imperfect  ideas  of  our  insti- 
tutions, and  no  confidence  in  them.  His  devotion  to 
the  principles  of  pure  despotism,  renders  him  unaffec- 
tionate  to  our  governments.  But  his  fear  of  England 
makes  him  value  us  as  a  make-weight.  He  is  cool, 
reserved  in  political  conversations,  but  free  and  famil- 
iar on  other  subjects,  and  a  very  attentive,  agreeable 
person  to  do  business  with.  It  is  impossible  to  have 
a  clearer  or  better  organized  head;  but  age  has  chilled 
his  heart."  "  The  Count  de  Vergennes,"  he  remarks, 
in  another  place,  "had  the  reputation,  with  the  diplb- 
matick  corps,  of  being  wary  and  slippery  in  his  diplo- 
matick  intercourse:  and  he  might  be,  with  those  whom 
he  knew  to  be  slippery  and  double-faced  themselves. 
As  he  saw  that  I  had  no  indirect  views,  practised  no 
subtleties,  meddled  in  no  intrigues,  pursued  no  con- 
cealed object,  I  found  him  as  frank,  as  honourable,  as 
easy  of  access  to  reason,  as  any  man  with  whom  I  had 
ever  done  business;  and  I  must  say  the  same  of  his 
sucessor,  Montmorin,  one  of  the  most  honest  and 
worthy  of  human  beings." 

"  It  is  a  tremendous  cloud,  indeed,  which  hovers 
over  this  nation,,  and  he  at  the  helm  ^Necker)  has 
neither  the  courage  nor  skill  necessary  to  weather  it. 
Eloquence  in.  a  high  degree,  knowledge  in  matters  of 


160  LIFE  'OF    JEFFERSON. 

account  and  order,  are  distinguishing  traits  in.  his 
character.  Ambition  is  his  first  passion,  virtue  his 
second.  He  has  not  discovered  that  sublime  truth, 
that  a  bold,  unequivocal  virtue  is  the  best  handmaid 
even  to  ambition,  and  would  carry  him  farther,  in  the 
end,  than  the  temporizing,  wavering  policy  he  pursues. 
His  judgement  is  not  of  the  first  order,  scarcely  even 
of  the  second ;  his  resolution  frail ;  and  upon  the 
whole,  it  is  rare  to  meet  an  instance  of  a  person  so 
much  below  the  reputation  he  has  obtained." 

"  The  King  (Louis  XVI.)  loves  business,  economy, 
order,  and  justice,  and  wishes  sincerely  the  good  of 
his  people ;  but  he  is  irascible,  rude,  very  limited  in 
his  understanding,  and  religious,  bordering  on  bigotry. 
He  has  no  mistress,  loves  his  Queen,  and  is  too  much 
governed  by  her." 

Mr.  Jefferson's  opinion  of  Maria  Antoinette,  the  un- 
fortunate Queen  of  France,  is  thought  to  have  been 
harsh  and  exaggerated,  and  not  made  with  a  due  al- 
lowance for  the  peculiarity  of  her  situation.  "  Her 
political  opinions,  conduct,  and  influence,"  it  is  said, 
"  are  not,  perhaps,  exaggerated,  and  to  them,  unfortu- 
nately, are  to  be  attributed,  with  too  much  justice,  the 
rapid,  unimpeded,  and,  to  herself,  most  lamentable 
course  of  events,  which  a  spirit  less  obdurate  might 
have  restrained,  or  turned  to  unmingled  good.  But 
there  were  traits  of  virtuous  and  lofty  firmness,  as  well 
as  of  tenderness  and  affection  in  her  character,  which 
were  more  fully  displayed  in  later  scenes  of  her  life, 
and  which  are  confirmed  in  all  the  relations  since 
given  to  the  world  by  those  who  saw  her  intimately 
and  familiarly,  that  do  not  seem  altogether  compatible 


LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON.  161 

with  the  picture  presented  by  Mr.  Jefferson.  And  it 
should  not  be  forgotten,  that  at  the  time  of  his  residence 
in  France,  the  party  opposed  to  Austria,  which  had 
arisen  under  the  administration  ofChoiseul,  and  which 
had  become  more  strong  in  that  opposition  from  its 
connexion  with  Frederick  and  with  Prussia,  comprised 
the  great  proportion  of  the  men  of  letters,  and  many  of 
the  patriotick  leaders,  with  whom  the  most  agreeable 
and  natural  associations  of  Mr.  Jefferson  were  formed." 
But  Mr.  Jefferson's  opinion,  it  must  also  be  recollected, 
is  that  of  &  cool,  calm,  and  temperate  observer,  unpre- 
judiced by  passion,  and  uninfluenced  by  interest,  and 
of  one  whose  faith  was  not  often  pinned  upon  the  un- 
supported assertions  of  others.  As  such,  we  give  it  to 
the  reader: 

"  Louis  XVI.  had  a  Queen"  of  absolute  sway  over 
his  weak  mind,  and  timid  virtue,  and  of  a  character 
the  reverse  of  his  in  all  points.  This  angel,  as  gaudily 
painted  in  the  rhapsodies  of  Burke,  with  some  smart- 
ness of  fancy,  but  no  sound  sense,  was  proud,  disdain- 
ful of  restraint,  indignant  at  all  obstacles  to  her  will, 
eager  in  the  pursuit  of  pleasure,  and  firm  enough  to 
hold  to  her  desires  or  perish  in  the  wreck.  Her  in- 
ordinate gambling  and  dissipations,  with  those  of  the 
Count  d'Artois,  and  others  of  her  clique,  h  d  been  a 
sensible  item  in  the  exhaustion  of  the  treasury,  which 
called  into  action  the  reforming  hand  of  the  nation ; 
and  her  opposition  to  it,  her  inflexible  perverseness, 
and  dauntless  spirit,  led  herself  to  the  guillotine,  drew 
the  King  on  with  her,  and  plunged  the  world  into  crimes 
and  calamities  which  will  for  ever  stain  the  pages  of 
modern  history.  I  have  ever  believed,  that  had  there 
15 


162  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

been  no  Queen,  there  would  have  been  no  revolution. 
No  force  would  have  been  provoked,  nor  exercised. 
The  King  would  have  gone  hand  in  hand  with  the 
wisdom  of  his  sounder  counsellors,  who,  guided  by 
the  increased  lights  of  the  age,  wished  only,  with  the 
same  pace,  to  advance  the  principles  of  their  social 
constitution.  The  deed  which  closed  the  mortal  course 
of  these  sovereigns,  I  shall  neither  approve  nor  con- 
demn. I  am  not  prepared  to  say,  that  the  first  magis- 
trate of  a  nation  cannot  commit  treason  against  his 
country,  or  is  unamenable  to  its  punishment :  nor  yet, 
that  there  is  no  written  law,  no  regulated  tribunal, 
there  is  not  a  law  in  our  hearts,  and  a  power  in  our 
hands,  given  for  righteous  employment  in  maintaining 
right,  and  redressing  wrong.  Of  those  who  judged  the 
King,  many  thought  him  wilfully  criminal :  many  that 
his  existence  would  keep  the  nation  in  perpetual  con- 
flict with  the  horde  of  Kings,  who  would  war  against 
a  regeneration  which  might  come  home  to*  themselves, 
and  that  it  were  better  that  one  should  die  than  all.  I 
should  not  have  voted  with  this  portion  of  the  legisla- 
ture. I  should  have  shut  up  the  Q,ueen  in  a  convent, 
putting  harm  out  of  her  power,  and  placed  the  King  in 
his  station,  investing  him  with  limited  powers,  which, 
I  verily  believe,  he  would  have  honestly  exercised, 
according  to  the  measure  of  his  understanding.  In 
this  way,  no  void  would  have  been  created,  courting  the 
usurpation  of  a  military  adventurer,  nor  occasion  given 
for  those  enormities  which  demoralized  the  nations  of 
the  world,  and  destroyed,  and  is  yet  to  destroy,  millions 
and  millions  of  its  inhabitants.  There  are  three  epochs 
in  history,  signalized  by  the  total  extinction  of  national 


LIFE    OF   JEFFERSON.  163 

morality.  The  first  was  of  the  successors  of  Alexander, 
not  omitting  himself:  the  next,  the  successors  of  the 
first  Ca3sar  :  the  third,  our  own  age.  rl  his  was  begun 
by  the  partition  of  Poland,  followed  by  the  treaty  of 
Pilnitz  ;  next  the  conflagration  of  Copenhagen  ;  then 
the  enormities  of  Bonaparte,  partitioning  the  earth  at 
his  will,  and  devastating  it  with  fire  and  sword ;  now 
the  conspiracy  of  Kings,  the  successors  of  Bonaparte, 
blasphemously  calling  themselves  the  Holy  Alliance, 
and  treading  in  the-footsteps  of  their  incarcerated  lead- 
er ;  not  yet,  indeed,  usurping  the  government  of  other 
nations,  avowedly  and  in  detail,  but  controlling  by  their 
armies  the  forms  in  which  they  will  permit  them  to  be 
governed  ;  and  reserving  in  petto  the  order  and  extent 
of  the  usurpations  further  meditated." 

Thus  regarding  the  situation  and  governments  of 
Europe,  it  may  be  well  supposed  that  he  formed  no 
very  advantageous  opinion  of  the  political  condition  of 
the  old  world,  and  that  he  looked  upon  the  general  fate 
of  humanity  there,  as  truly  deplorable  in  comparison 
with  that  of  his  own  more  fortunate  country.  "  He 
saw  all  around  him  the  truth  of  Voltaire's  observation, 
that  every  man  must  be  either  the  hammer  or  the  an- 
vil. The  great  mass  of  the  people  were  suffering  under 
physical  and  moral  oppression,  while  those  whom  for- 
tune had  placed  in  a  loftier  sphere,  sought  in  the  con- 
stant restlessness  and  tumult  of  ambition,  dissipation, 
pomp,  vanity,  and  unceasing  intrigues  of  politicks  and 
love,  that  excitement  which  formed  a  poor  substitute 
for  higher  aims  and  more  lasting  pleasures.  In  litera- 
ture and  science,  indeed,  the  learned,  the  witty,  and  the 
eloquent  men  who  will  ever  make  that  age  remarkable, 


164  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

left  far  behind  them  the  few  scholars  of  the  infant  re- 
publicks ;  but  this  was  more  than  compensated  by  the 
wide  diffusion  of  general  knowledge  through  the  whole 
mass  in  one  community,  while  in  the  other,  all  but  a 
small  and  favoured  circle  were  immersed  in  deep  and 
general  ignorance." 

Of  fashionable  life  in  Paris,  we  have  his  own  pleasant 
and  playful  account,  in  his  letter  of  February  7,  1787, 
to  Mrs.  Bingham  :  "  I  know,  madam,  that  the  twelve- 
month is  not  yet  expired,  but  it  will  be,  nearly,  before 
this  will  have  the  honour  of  being  put  into  your  hands. 
You  are  then  engaged  to  tell  me,  truly  and  honestly, 
whether  you  do  not  find  the  tranquil  pleasures  of 
America  preferable  to  the  empty  bustle  of  Paris.  For 
to  what  does  that  bustle  tend?  At  eleven  o'clock,  it  is 
day,  ckez  madame.  The  curtains  are  drawn.  Propped 
on  bolsters  and  pillows^  and  her  head  scratched  into  a 
little  order,  the  bulletins  of  the  sick  are  read,  and  the 
billets  of  the  well.  She  writes  to  some  of  her  acquaint- 
ance, and  receives  the  visits  of  others.  If  the  morning 
is  not  very  thronged,  she  is  able  to  get  out  and  hobble 
round  the  cage  of  the  Palais  Royal;  but  she  must 
hobble  quickly,  for  the  coiffeur's  turn  is  come — and  a 
tremendous  turn  it  is  !  Happy,  if  he  does  not  make  her 
arrive  when  dinner  is  half  over !  The  torpitude  of 
digestion  a  little  passed,  she  flutters  half  an  hour  through 
the  streets,  by  way  of  paying  visits,  and  then  to  the 
spectacles.  These  finished,  another-  half  hour  is  devoted 
to  dodging  in  and  out  of  the  doors  of  her  very  sincere 
friends,  and  away  to  supper.  After  supper,  cards;  and 
after  cards,  bed  ;  to  rise  at  noon  the  next  day,  and  ta 
tread,  like  a  mill-horse,  the  same  trodden  circle 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  165 

Thus  the  days  of  life  are  consumed,  one  by  one,  without 
an  object  beyond  the  present  moment ;  ever  flying  from 
the  ennui  of  that,  yet  carrying  it  with  us ;  eternally  in 
pursuit  of  happiness,  which  keeps  eternally  before  us. 
If  death  or  bankruptcy  happen  to  trip  us  out  of  the 
circle,  it  is  matter  for  the  buzz  of  the  evening,  and  is 
completely  forgotten  by  the  next  morning.  In  America, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  society  of  your  husband,  the  fond 
cares  for  the  children,  the  arrangements  for  the  house, 
the  improvements  of  the  grounds,  fill  every  moment 
with  a  healthy  and  an  useful  activity.  Every  exertion 
is  encouraging,  because  to  present  amusement  it  joins 
the  promise  of  some  future  good.  The  intervals  of 
leisure  are  filled  by  the  society  of  real  friends,  whose 
affections  are  not  thinned  to  cobweb,  by  being  spread 
over  a  thousand  objects.  This  is  the  picture,  in  tho 
light  it  is  presented  to  my  mind ;  now  let  me  have  it 
in  yours." 

Yet,  as  has  been  truly  remarked,  Mr.  Jefferson  was 
not  insensible  to  those  traits  in  the  character  of  the 
French,  which  have  thrown  a  charm  over  their  nation 
— its  manners,  its  society,  its  institutions,  and  its  peo- 
ple ;  which  have  long  made  its  cities  the  resort  alike 
of  those  who  seek  for  amusement  or  for  wisdom ; 
which  have  placed  it  first  in  the  scale  of  refinement, 
if  not  of  intellect;  which  have  given  to  its  exploits  all 
the  brilliant  tints  of  gallantry  and  romance;  which 
have  made  it  the  chosen  abode,  in  modern  times,  of 
taste,  of  science,  and  of  art ;  and  imparted  to  the  luxu- 
ries of  life,  that  elegance  and  zest,  which,  if  to  be  de- 
sired, are  yet  unattained  by  the  other  nations  of  the 
world.  Though  the  low  and  sullen  murmurs  of  tho 
15 


LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON. 

approaching  storm  were  heard  while  he  yet  remained 
there,  the  bursting  of  the  tempest  was  delayed— the 
steps  of  palaces  were  still  trodden  by  gallant  nobles, 
who,  in  personal  intercourse,  seemed  to  forget  the  pride 
of  place  and  of  birth,  in  the  suavity  and  kindness  of  their 
manners — the  gilded  drawing  rooms,  the  glittering 
theatres,  the  gardens  eoolcd  by  fountains  and  adorned 
by  statues,  were  still  frequented  by  women,  whose 
beauty  and  wit  might  seem  to  claim  some  pardon  for 
their  intrigues  and  crimes,  and  some  hopes  that  they 
might  escape  impending  desolation — the  bureaux  were 
still  filled  by  statesmen,  who  so  tempered  and  arranged 
the  details  of  diplomatick  intercourse,  so  displayed, 
when  occasion  offered,  a  candid  and  even  a  generous 
spirit,  that  those  at  least  who  were  removed  from  the 
sphere  of  their  designs,  might  look  with  less  distrust 
or  anxiety  on  vast  schemes  of  political  ambition,  which 
were  meant  to  embrace  all  the  destinies  of  the  age — 
the  institutions  of  learning  were  still  occupied  by  that 
large  and  singular  body  of  literary  triflers,  whose  spec- 
ulations and  researches  are  now  seldom  extricated  from, 
the  long  series  of  volumes  which  contain  their  labours 
and  their  dreams,  but  whose  conversation  varied  and 
amused  the  society  when  it  was  eagerly  welcomed 
and  widely  diffused. 

From  these  scenes  Mr.  Jefferson  did  not  part  with- 
out regret:  on  these  scenes  he  often  looked  back  in  the 
subsequent  and  different  portion  of  his  earthly  journey ; 
and  to  them  he  referred  not  long  before  its  termination, 
in  language  which  betrays  an  impression  vividly  made, 
and  still  uneffaced.  '"I  cannot  leave  this  great  and 
good  country,"  he  says,  after  speaking  cf  his  residence 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  16% 

in  France,  "  without  expressing  my  sense  of  its  preemi- 
nence of  character,  among  the  nations  of  the  earth.  A 
more  benevolent  people  I  have  never  kno\vn,  nor  greater 
warmth  and  devotedness  in  their  select  friendships. — 
Their  kindness  and  accommodation  to  strangers  is  un- 
paralleled, and  the  hospitality  of  Paris  is  beyond  any 
thing  I  had  conceived  to  be  practicable  in  a  large  city. 
Their  eminence,  too,  in  science,  the  communicative 
dispositions  of  their  scientifick  men,  the  politeness  of 
the  general  manners,  the  ease  and  vivacity  of  their 
conversation,  give  a  charm  to  their  society  to  be  found 
no  where  else.  In  a  comparison  of  this  with  other 
countries,  we  have  the  proof  of  primacy,  which  was 
given  to  Themistocles  after  the  battle  of  Salamis. — 
Every  general  voted  to  himself  the  first  reward  of  va- 
lour, and  the  second  to  Themistocles.  So,  ask  the  trav- 
elled inhabitant  of  any  nation,  in  what  country  on 
earth  would  you  rather  live?  Certainly,  in  my  own, 
where  are  all  my  friends,  my  relations,  and  the  earli- 
est and  sweetest  affections  and  recollections  of  my  life. 
Which  would  be  your  second  choice  ?  France." 

As  Mr.  Jefferson  was  absent  from  America  both 
during  the  session  of  the  convention  which  formed  the 
constitution,  and  while  that  act  was  under  discussion 
in  the  several  states,  he  had  no  opportunity  to  take 
part  in  its  formation.  The  want  of  a  general  govern- 
ment had  been  severely  felt,  and  the  difficulties  of  the 
country  were  greatly  increased,  by  the  failure  of  treaties 
abroad,  which  might  have  given  a  system  to  our  for- 
eign relations,  that  could  scarcely  be  expecte  ',  While 
the  states  presented  a  social  form  so  feebly  connected  ; 
the  federal  constitution,  therefore,  had  been  framed 


f68  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

from  a  general  conviction  of  its  necjA|jty.     No   one 
rejoiced  more  than  Mr.  Jefferson  tPme  formation  of 
the  new  constitution,  and  its   ratification  by  the  states. 
Of  the  great  mass  of  it,  also,  he  entirely  approved: 
the  consolidation  of  the  government  ;  the  organization 
in  their  branches ;  the  subdivision  of  the  legislative 
branch;  the  happy  compromise  of  interests  between 
the  large  and  small  states,  by  the  different   manner  of 
voting  in  the  two  houses :  the  voting  by  persons  in- 
stead of  states  ;  the  qualified  negative  on  the  laws  giv- 
«n-to  the  Executive;  and  the  direct  power  of  taxation. 
There  were  points,  however,  to  which  he  had  objec- 
tions, some  less  strong  and  some  insuperable.     But  it 
is  proper  that  the  objections  of  so  profound  and  popu- 
lar a  statesman  as  Mr.  Jefferson,  and  to  so  important 
an  instrument,  should  be  given  in  detail.     In  a  letter  to 
Mr.  Madison,  dated  Paris,  December  20,  1787,  he  thus 
writes:     "I  like  much  the  general  idea  of  framing  a 
government,  which  should  go  on  of  itself,  peaceably, 
without  needing  continual  recurrence  to  the  state  leg- 
islatures.    I  like  the  organization  of  the  government 
into  legislative,  judiciary,  and  executive.     I  like  the 
power  given  the  legislature  to  levy  taxes,  and  for  that 
reason  solely,  I  approve  of  the  greater  house  being 
chosen  by  the  people  directly.     For  though  I  think  a 
house,  so  chosen,  will  be  very  far  inferiour  to  the  pre- 
«ent  Congress,  it  will  be  very  illy  qualified  to  legislate 
for  the  Union,  for  foreign  nations,  &c. ;  yet  this  evil  doe* 
not  weigh  against  the  good  of  preserving  inviolate  the 
fundamental  principle,  that  the  people  are  not  to  be 
taxed  but  by  representatives  chosen  immediately  by 
tfeemseires.  I  am  captivated  by  the  compromise 


LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON.  169 

opposite  claims  of  the  great  and  little  states,  of  the 
latter  to  equal,  and  the  former  to  proportional  influence. 
I  am  much  pleased,  too,  with  the  substitution  of  the 
method  of  voting  by  persons,  instead  of  that  of  Acting 
by  states:  and  I  like  the  negative  given  to  the  Execu- 
tive, conjointly  with  a  third  of  either  house;  though 
I  .should  have  liked  it  better,  had  the  judiciary  been 
associated  for  that  purpose,  or  invested  separately  with 
a  similar  power.  There  are  other  good  things  of  less 
moment. 

"  I  will  now  tell  yen  what  I  do  not  like.  First,  the 
omission  of  a  bill  of  rights,  providing  clearly,  and 
without  the  aid  of  sophism,  for  freedom  of  religion, 
freedom  of  the  presj-  protection  against  standing  ar- 
mies, restriction  of  monopolies,  the  eternal  and  unre- 
mitting force  of  the  habeas  corpus  laws,  and  trials  by 
jury  in  all  matters  of  fact  triable  by  the  laws  of  the 
land,  and  not  by  the  laws  of  nations.  To  say,  as  Mr% 
Wilson  does,  that  a  bill  of  rights  was  not  necessary, 
because  all  is  reserved  in  the  care  of  the  geneial  gov- 
ernment which  is  not  given,  Avhile  in  the  particular 
ones',  a!l  is  given  which  is  not  reserved,  rriitht  to  for 
the  audience,  to  which  it  was  addressed  :  but  it  is  sure- 
ly a  gratis  dictum,  the  reverse  of  which  might  just  as 
well  be  said  ;  and  it  is  opposed  by  strong  inferences 
from  the  body  of  the  instrument,  as  well  as  frcm  the 
omission  of  the  clause  of  our  present  Confederation, 
which  had  made  the  reservation  in  express  terms.  It 
was  hard  to  conclude,  because  there  has  been  a  want 
of  uniformity  among  the  states  as  to  the  cases  triable 
by  jury,  because  some  have  been  so  incautious  as  ta 
dispense  with  this  mode  of  trial  in  certain  cases,  there" 


170  LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON. 

fore  the  more  prudent  states  shall  be  reduced,  to  the 
same  level  of  calamity.  It  would  have  been  much 
more  just  and  wise  to  have  concluded  the  other  way, 
that  as  most  of  the  states  had  preserved  with  jealousy 
this  sacr jd  palladium  of  liberty,  those  who  had  wan- 
dered should  be  brought  back  to  it :  and  to  have  estab- 
lished general  right  rather  than  general  wrong.  For 
I  consider  all  the  ill  as  established,  which  may  be  es- 
tablished. I  have  a  right  to  nothing,  which  another 
has  a  right  to  take  away  ;  and  Congress  will  have  a 
right  to  take  away  trials  by  jury  in  all  civil  cases. — 
Let  me  add,  that  a  bill  of  rights  is  what  the  people  are 
entitled  to  against  every  government  on  earth,  general 
or  particular;  and  what  no  just  government  should  re- 
fuse, or  rest  on  inference. 

"The  second  feature  I  dislike,  and  strongly  dislike, 
is  the  abandonment,  in  every  instance,  of  the  principle 
of  rotation  in  office,  and  most  particularly  in  the  case  of 
the  President.  Reason  and  experience  tell  us,  that  the 
first  magistrate  will  always  be  re-elected,  if  he  may  be 
re-elected.  He  is  then  an  officer  for  life.  This  once 
observed,  it  becomes  of  so  much  consequence  to  certain 
nations,  to  have  a  friend  or  a  foe  at  the  head  of  our 
affairs,  that  they  will  interfere  with  money  and  with 
arms.  A  Galloman,  or  an  Angloman,  will  be  supported 
by  the  nation  he  befriends.  If  once  elected,  and  at  a 
Second  or  third  election  outvoted  by  one  or  two  votes, 
he  will  pretend  false  votes,  foul  play,  hold  possession 
pf  the  reins  of  government,  be  supported  by  the  states 
Toting  for  him,  especially  if  they  be  the  central  ones, 
lying  in  a  compact  body  by  themselves,  and  separating 
their  opponents  ;  .and  they  will  be  aided  by  one  nation 


LIFE    OF   JEFFERSON.  171 

in  Europe,  while  the  majority  are  aided  by  another. 
The  election  of  a  President  of  America,  some  years 
hence,  will  be  much  more  interesting  to  certain  nations 
of  Europe  than  ever  the  election  of  a  King  of  Poland 
was.  Reflect  on  all  the  instances  in  history,  ancient  and 
modern,  of  elective  monarchies,  and  say,  if  they  do  not 
give  foundation  for  my  fears  ;  the  Roman  Emperours, 
the  Popes  while  they  were  of  any  importance,  the  Ger- 
man Emperours  till  they  became  hereditary  in  practice, 
the  Kings  of  Poland,  the  Deys  of  the  Ottoman  depen- 
dencies. It  may  be  said,  that  if  elections  are  to  be 
attended  with  these  disorders,  the  less  frequently  they 
are  repeated,  the  better.  But  experience  says,  that  to 
free  thsm  from  disorder,  they  must  be  rendered  less 
interesting  by  a  necessity  of  change.  No  foreign 
power,  nor  domestick  party,  will  waste  their  blood  and 
money  to  elect  a  person  who  must  go  out  at  the  end  of 
a  short  period.  The  power  of  removing  every  fourth 
year  by  the  vote  of  the  people,  is  a  power  which  they 
will  not  exercise,  and  if  they  were  disposed  to  exercise 
it,  they  would  not  be  permitted.  The  King  of  Poland 
is  removable  every  day  by  the  Diet,  but  they  never 
remove  him :  nor  would  Russia,  the  Emperour,  &c. 
permit  them  to  do  it.  Smaller  objections  are,  the  appeals 
on  matter  of  fact  as  well  as  law  ;  and  the  binding  all 
persons,  legislative,  executive,  and  judiciary,  by  oath, 
to  maintain  the  constitution.  I  do  not  pretend  to  decide 
what  would  be  the  best  method  of  procuring  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  manifold  good  things  in  this  constitu- 
tion, and  of  getting  rid  of  the  bad.  Whether  by  adopt- 
ing it,  in  hopes  of  future  amendment,  or  after  it  shall 
have  been,  duly  weighed  and  canvassed  by  the  people, 


172  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON, 

after  seeing  the  parts  they  generally  dislike,  and  those 
they  generally  approve,  to  say  to  them,  *  We  see  now 
\vhat  you  wish :  you  are  willing  to  give  up  to  your 
federal  government  such  and  such  powers ;  but  you 
wish,  at  the  same  time,  to  have  such  and  such  funda- 
mental rights  secured  to  you,  and  certain  sources  of 
convulsion  taken  away.  Be  it  so.  Send  together  your 
deputies  again.  Let  them  establish  your  fundamental 
rights  by  a  sacrosanct  declaration,  and  let  them  pass 
ihe  parts  of  the  constitution  you  have  approved.  These 
will  give. powers  to  your  federal  government  sufficient 
for  your  happiness.' 

'*  This  is  what  might  be  said,  and  would  probably 
produce  a  speedy,  more  perfect,  and  more  permanent 
form  of  government.  At  all  events,  I  hope,  you  will 
not  be  discouraged  from  making  other  trials,  if  the 
present  one  should  fail.  We  are  never  permitted  to 
'despair  of  the  commonwealth.  1  have  thus  told  you 
freely  what  I  like,  and  what  1  dislike,  merely  as  a  mat- 
ter of  curiosity  :  for  I  know  it  is  not  in  my  power  to 
offer  matter  of  information  to  your  judgement,  which 
has  been  formed  after  hearing  and  weighing  every 
thing  which  the  wisdom  of  man  could  offer  on  these 
subjects.  I  own,  I  am  not  a  friend  to  a  very  energetick 
government.  It  is  always  oppressive.  It  places  the 
Gpvernouis,  indeed,  more  at  their  ease,  at  the  expense 
of  the  people.  The  late  rebellion  in  Massachusetts  has 
given  more  alarm  than  I  think  it  should  have  done. 
Calculate  that  one  rebellion  in  thirteen  states  in  the 
course  of  eleven  years,  is  but  one  for  each  state  in  a 
century  and  a  half.  No  country  should  be  so  long 
without  one.  Nor  will  any  degree  of  power  in  the 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  173 

hands  of  government  prevent  insurrections.  In  Eng- 
land, where  the  hand  of  power  is  heavier  than  with 
us,  there  are  seldom  half  a  dozen  years  without  an 
insurrection.  In  France,  where  it  is  still  heavier,  but 
less  despotick,  as  Montesquieu  supposes,  than  in  some 
other  countries,  and  where  there  are  always  two  or  three 
hundred  thousand  men  ready  to  crush  insurrections, 
there  have  been  three  in  the  course  of  the  three  years 
I  have  been  here,  in  every  one  of  which  greater  num- 
bers were  engaged  than  in  Massachusetts,  and  a  great 
deal  more  blood  was  spilt.  In  Turkey,  where  the  sole 
nod  of  the  despot  is  death,  insurrections  are  the  events 
of  every  day.  Compare  again  the  ferocious  depreda- 
tions of  their  insurgents  with  the  order,  the  moderation, 
and  the  almost  self-extinguishment  of  ours.  And  say, 
finally,  whether  peace  is  best  preserved  by  giving 
energy  to  the  government,  or  information  to  the  people. 
This  last  is  the  most  certain  and  the  most  legitimate 
engine  of  government.  Educate  and  inform  the  whole 
mass  of  the  people.  Enable  them  to  see  that  it  is  their 
interest  to  preserve  peace  and  order,  and  they  will 
preserve  them.  And  it  requires  no  very  high  degree 
of  education  to  convince  them  of  this.  They  are  the 
only  sure  reliance  for  the  preservation  of  our  liberty. 
After  all,  it  is  my  principle  that  the  will  of  the  majority 
should  prevail.  If  they  approve  the  proposed  consti- 
tution in  all  its  parts,  I  shall  concur  in  it  cheerfully,  in 
hopes  they  will,  amend  it,  whenever  they  shall  find  that 
it  works  wrong.  This  reliance  cannot  deceive  us,  as 
long  as  we  remain  virtuous ;  and  I  think  we  shall  be 
so,  as  long  as  agriculture  is  our  principal  object,  which 
will  be  the  case  while  there  remain  vacant  lands  in 
16 


174  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

any  part  of  America.  When  we  get  piled  upon  on0 
another  in  large  cities,  as  in  Europe,  we  shall  become 
corrupt,  as  in  Europe,  and  go  to  eating  one  another  as 
they  do  there." 

In  another  letter,  to  the  same  distinguished  person- 
age, dated  July  31,  1788,  he  remarks:  "  I  sincerely 
rejoice  at  the  acceptance  of  our  new  constitution  by 
nine  states.  It  is  a  good  canvass,  on  which  some  strokes 
only  want  retouching.  What  these  are,  I  think  are 
sufficiently  manifested  by  the  general  voice  from  north 
to  south,  which  calls  for  a  bill  of  rights.  It  seems 
pretty  generally  understood,  that  this  should  go  to 
juries,  habeas  corpus,  standing  armies,  printing,  reli- 
gion, and  monopolies.  I  conceive  there  may  be  diffi- 
culty in  finding  general  modifications  of  these,  suited 
to  the  habits  of  all  the  states.  But  if  such  cannot  be 
found,  then  it  is  better  to  establish  trials  by  jury,  the 
right  of  habeas  corpus,  freedom  of  the  press,  and  free- 
dom of  religion,  in  all  cases,  and  to  abolish  standing 
armies  in  time  of  peace,  and  monopolies  in  all  cases, 
than  not  to  do  it  in  any.  The  few  cases  wherein  these 
things  may  do  evil,  cannot  be  weighed  against  the 
multitude  wherein  the  want  of  them  will  do  evil.  In 
disputes  between  a  foreigner  and  a  nation,  a  trial  by 
jury  may  be  improper.  But  if  this  exception  cannot 
be  agreed  to,  the  remedy  will  be  to  model  the  jury,  by 
giving  the  medietas  lingua,  in  civil  as  well  as  crim- 
inal cases.  Why  suspend  the  habeas  corpus  in  insur- 
rections and  rebellions  ?  The  parties  who  may  be 
arrested,  may  be  charged  instantly  with  a  well-defined 
crime  ;  of  course,  the  judge  will  remand  them.  If  the 
publick -safety  requires  that  the  government  should 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  175 

have  a  man  imprisoned  on  less  probable  testimony  in 
those  than  in  other  emergencies,  let  him  be  taken  and 
tried,  re-taken  and  re -tried,  while  the  necessity  con- 
tinues, only  giving  him  redress  against  the  government 
for  damages.  Examine  the  history  of  England.  See 
how  few  of  the  cases  of  the  suspension  of  the  habeas 
corpus  law  have  been  worthy  of  that  suspension.  They 
have  been  either  real  treason,  wherein  the  parties 
might  as  well  have  been  charged  at  once,  or  sham 
plots,  where  it  was  shameful  they  should  ever  have 
been  suspected.  Yet  for  the  few  cases  wherein  the 
suspension  of  the  habeas  corpus  has  done  real  good, 
that  operation  is  now  become  habitual,  and  the  minds 
of  the  nation  almost  prepared  to  live  under  its  constant 
suspension.  A  declaration,  that  the  federal  government 
will  never  restrain  the  presses  from  printing  any  thing 
they  please,  will  not  take  away  the  liability  of  the 
printers  for  false  facts  printed.  The  declaration,  that 
religious  faith  shall  be  unpunished,  does  not  give  im- 
punity to  criminal  acts  dictated  by  religious  errour. 
The  saying  there  shall  be  no  monopolies,  lessens  the 
incitements  to  ingenuity,  which  is  spurred  on  by  the 
hope  of  a  monopoly  for  a  limited  time,  as  of  fourteen 
years :  but  the  benefit  of  even  limited  monopolies  is  too 
doubtful  to  be  opposed  to  that  of  their  general  suppres- 
sion. If  no  check  can  be  found  to  keep  the  number  of 
standing  troops  within  safe  bounds,  while  they  are 
tolerated  as  far  as  necessary,  abandon  them  altogether, 
discipline  well  the  militia,  and  guard  the  magazines 
with  them.  More  than  magazine  guards  will  be  use- 
less, if  few ;  and  dangerous,  if  many.  No  European 
nation  can  ever  send  against  us  such  a  regular  army 


176  LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON, 

as  we  need  fear,  and  it  is  hard,  if  our  militia  are  not 
equal  to  those  of  Canada  or  Florida.  My  idea,  then, 
is,  that  though  proper  exceptions  to  these  general  rules 
are  desirable,  and  probably  practicable,  yet  if  the  ex- 
ceptions cannot  be  agreed  on,  the  establishment  of  the 
rules,  in  all  cases,  will  do  ill  in  very  few.  I  hope, 
therefore,  a  bill  of  rights  will  be  formed,  to  guard  the 
people  against  the  federal  government,  as  they  are 
already  guarded  against  their  state  governments,  in 
most  instances.  The  abandoning  the  principle  of  ne- 
cessary rotation  in  the  Senate,  has,  I  see,  been  disap- 
proved by  many :  in  the  case  of  the  President,  by  none. 
I  readily,  therefore,  suppose  my  opinion  wrong,  when 
opposed  by  the  majority,  as  in  the  former  instance,  and 
the  totality,  as  in  the  latter.  In  this,  however,  I  should 
have  done  it  with  more  complete  satisfaction,  had  we 
all  judged  from  the  same  position." 

Many  of  these  objections  of  Mr.  Jefferson  were 
afterwards  obviated,  by  amencfrnents  to  the  constitu- 
tion. It  was  deemed  best  to  leave  the  right  of  habeas 
corpus  to  the  discretion  of  Congress ;  and  the  question 
of  the  re-eligibility  of  the  President,  though  not  pro- 
posed or  acted  on  formally,  has  received  from  the  ex- 
ample of  the  officers  in  that  high  station,  and  the  pro- 
gress of  publick  opinion,  a  decision,  which  may  be  al* 
most  considered  as  an  established  principle,  any  de- 
viation from  which  would  probably  be  opposed  as  a 
demonstration  of  ambitious  views. 

There  was  another  amendment,  however,  not  made 
or  apparently  thought  of  at  the  time,  the  omission  of 
which  Mr.  Jefferson  deemed  of  fatal  consequence,  as 
leaving  uncrushed  the  g'erme  that  was  to  destroy  the 


LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON.  177 

wise  combination  of  national  powers.  The  evil  he  so 
much  feared,  was  the  entire  irresponsibility  of  the 
judges,  and  their  independence  of  the  nation.  He  thus 
refers  to  this  subject  in  his  memoirs:  "But  there  was 
another  amendment,  of  which  none  of  us  thought  at  the 
time,  and  in  the  omission  of  which,  lurks  the  germe 
that  is  to  destroy  this  happy  combination  of  national 
powers,  in  the  general  government,  for  matters  of  na- 
tional concern,  and  independent  powers  in  the  states, 
for  what  concerns  the  states  severally.  In  England,  it 
was  a  great  point  gained  at  the  revolution,  that  the 
commissions  of  the  judges,  which  had  hitherto  been 
during  pleasure,  should  thenceforth  be  made  during 
good  behaviour.  A  judiciary,  dependent  on  the  will  of 
the  King,  had  proved  itself  the  most  oppressive  of  all 
tools  in  the  hand  of  that  magistrate.  Nothing,  then, 
could  be  more  salutary,  than  a  change  there,  to  the 
tenour  of  good  behaviour ;  and  the  question  of  good 
behaviour,  left  to  the  vote  of  a  simple  majority  in  the 
two  houses  of  Parliament.  Before  the  revolution,  we 
were  all  good  English  whigs,  cordial  in  their  free 
principles,  and  in  their  jealousies  of  their  Executive 
magistrate.  These  jealousies  are  very  apparent,  in  all 
our  state  constitutions;  and,  in  the  general  govern- 
ment in  this  instance,  we  fiave  gone  even  beyond  the 
English  caution,  by  requiring  a  vote  of  two  thirds  in 
one  of  the  houses,  for  removing  a  judge :  a  vote  so 
impossible,  where  any  defence  is  made,  before  men  of 
ordinary  prejudices  and  passions,  that  our  judges  are 
effectually  independent  of  the  nation.  But  this  ought 
not  to  be.  I  would  not,  indeed,  make  them  dependent 
on  the  Executive  authority,  as  they  formerly  were  in 
16* 


178  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

England  ;  but  I  deem  it  indispensable  to  the  continu- 
ance of  this  government,  that  they  should  be  submit- 
ted to  some  practical  and  impartial  control ;  and  thai 
this,  to  be  impartial,  must  be  compounded  of  a  mixture 
of  state  and  federal  authorities.  It  is  not  enough,  that 
honest  men  are  appointed  judges.  All  know  the  influ- 
ence of  interest  on  the  mind  of  man,  and  how  uncon- 
sciously his  judgement  is  warped  by  that  influence. — 
To  this  bias  add  that  of  the  esprit  de  corps,  of  their  pe- 
culiar maxim  and  creed,  *  that  it  is  the  office  of  a  good 
judge  to  enlarge  his  jurisdiction,'  and  the  absence  of 
responsibility ;  and  how  can  we  expect  impartial  de- 
cision between  the  general  government,  of  which  they 
are  themselves  so  eminent  a  part,  and  an  individual 
state,  from  which  they  have  nothing  to  hope  or  fear  ? 
We  have  seen,  too,  that,  contrary  to  all  correct  exam- 
ple, they  are  in  the  habit  of  going  out  of  the  question 
before  them,  to  throw  an  anchor  ahead,  and  grapple 
further  hold  for  future  advances  of  power.  They  are 
then,  in  fact,  the  corps  of  sappers  and  miners,  steadily 
working  to  undermine  the  independent  rights  of  the 
states,  and  to  consolidate  all  power  in  the  hands  of  that 
government,  in  which  they  have  so  important  a  freehold 
estate.  But  it  is  not  by  the  consolidation  or  concentra* 
tion  of  powers,  but  by  their  distribution,  that  good  gov- 
ernment is  effected.  Were  not  this  great  country  al- 
ready divided  into  states,  the  division  must  be  made, 
that  each  might  do  for  itself  what  concerns  itself  di- 
rectly, and  what  it  can  so  much  better  do  than  a  dis- 
tant authority.  Every  state  again  is  divided  into  coun- 
ties, each  to  take  care  of  what  lies  within  its  local 
bounds ;  each  county  again  into  townships  or  wards. 


' 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  179 

to  manage  minuter  details ;  and  every  ward  into  farms, 
to  be  governed  each  by  its  individual  proprietor. — 
Were  we  directed  from  Washington  when  to  sow  and 
when  to  reap,  we  should  soon  want  bread.  It  is  by 
this  partition  of  cares,  descending  in  gradation  from 
general  to  particular,  that  the  mass  of  human  affairs 
may  be  best  managed,  for  the  good  and  prosperity  of  all. 
I  repeat,  that  I  do  not  charge  the  judges  with  wilful 
and  ill-intentioned  errour ;  but  honest  errour  must  be 
arrested,  where  its  toleration  leads  to  publick  ruin. — 
As,  for  the  safety  of  society,  we  commit  honest  mani- 
acks  to  Bedlam,  so  judges  should  be  withdrawn  from 
their  bench,  whose  erroneous  biases  are  leading  us  to 
dissolution.  It  may,  indeed,  injure  them  in  fame  or  in 
fortune ;  but  it  saves  the  republick,  which  is  the  first 
and  supreme  law." 

Neither,  while  abroad,  was  Mr.  Jefferson  a  little 
efficient  in  redeeming  the  credit  of  his  government. — 
"  Among  the  debilities  of  the  government  of  the  Con- 
federation," says  he,  "  no  one  was  more  distinguished  or 
more  distressing,  than  the  utter  impossibility  of  obtain- 
ing from  the  states,  the  moneys  necessary  for  the  pay- 
ment of  debts,  or  even  for  the  ordinary  expenses  of 
the  government.  Some  contributed  a  little,  some  less, 
and  some  nothing;  and  the  last,  furnished  at  length  an 
excuse  for  the  first,  to  do  nothing  also.  Mr.  Adams, 
while  residing  at  the  Hague,  had  a  general  authority  to 
borrow  what  sums  might  be  requisite  for  ordinary  and 
necessary  expenses.  Interest  on  the  publick  debt,  and 
the  maintenance  of  the  diplomatick  establishment  in 
Europe,  had  been  habitually  provided  in  this  way. — 
He  was  now  elected  Vice  President  of  the  United 


180  LIFE    Of    JEFJFJERSON. 

States,  was  soon  to  return  to  America,  and  had  referred 
our  bankers  to  me  for  future  counsel,  on  our  affairs  in 
their  hands.  But  I  had  no  powers,  no  instructions, 
no  means,  and  no  familiarity  with  the  subject.  It  had 
alwrays  been  exclusively  under  his  management,  except 
as  to  occasional  and  partial  deposites  in  the  hands  of 
Mr.  Grand,  banker  in  Paris,  for  special  and  local  pur- 
poses. These  last  had  been  exhausted  for  some  time, 
and  I  had  fervently  pressed  the  Treasury  Board  to 
replenish  this  particular  deposite,  as  Mr.  Grand  now 
refused  to  make  further  advances.  They  answered 
candidly,  that  no  funds  could  be  obtained  until  the  new 
government  should  get  into  action,  and  have  time  to 
make  its  arrangements.  Mr.  Adams  had  received  his 
appointment  to  the  court  of  London,  while  engaged  at 
Paris  with  Dr.  Franklin  and  myself,  in  the  negotia- 
tions under  our  joint  commissions.  He  had  repaired 
thence  to  London,  without  returning  to  the  Hague,  to 
take  leave  of  that  government.  He  thought  it  neces- 
sary, however,  to  do  so  now,  before  he  should  leave 
Europe,  and  accordingly  went  there.  1  learned  his 
departure  fronx  London,  by  a  letter  from  Mrs.  Adams, 
received  on  the  very  day  on  which  he  would  arrive  at 
the  Hague.  A  consultation  with  him,  and  some  pro- 
vision for  the  future,  was  indispensable,  while  we 
could  yet  avail  ourselves  of  his  powers ;  for  when 
they  would  be  gone,  we  should  be  without  resource. 
I  was  daily  dunned  by  a  company  who  had  formerly 
made  a  small  loan  to  the  United  States,  the  principal 
of  which  was  now  become  due ;  and  our  bankers  in 
Amsterdam  had  notified  me,  that  the  interest  on  our 
general  debt  would  be  expected  in  June ;  that  if  wo 


LIFE    07    JEiTERSON.  181 

failed  to  pay  it,  it  would  be  deemed  an  act  of  bank- 
ruptcy, and  would  effectually  destroy  the  credit  of  the 
United  States,  and  all  future  prospects  of  obtaining 
money  there ;  that  the  loan  they  had  been  authorized 
to  open,  of  which  a  third  only  was  filled,  had  now  ceased 
to  get  forward,  and  rendered  desperate  that  hope  of 
resource.  I  saw  that  there  was  not  a  moment  to  lose, 
and  set  out  for  the  Hague  on  the  second  morning  after 
receiving  the  information  of  Mr.  Adams'  journey.  I 
went  the  direct  road  by  Louvres,  Senlis,  Roye,  Pont 
St.  Maxence,  Bois  le  Due,  Gournay,  Peronne,  Cambray, 
Bouchain,  Valenciennes,  Mons,  Bruxelles,  Malines, 
Antwerp,  Mordick,  and  Rotterdam,  to  the  Hague, 
where  I  happily  found  Mr.  Adams.  He  concurred 
with  me  at  once  in  opinion,  that  something  must  be 
done,  and  that  we  ought  to  risk  ourselves  on  doing  it, 
without  waiting  for  instructions,  to  save  the  credit  of 
the  United  States.  We  foresaw,  i  that  before  the  new 
government  could  be  adopted,  assembled,  establish  its 
financial  system,  get  the  money  into  the  treasury,  and 
place  it  in  Europe,  considerable  time  would  elapse ; 
that,  therefore,  we  had  better  provide  at  once  for  the 
years  '88,  '89  and  '90,  in  order  to  place  our  govern-- 
ment  at  its  ease,  and  our  credit  in  security,  during  that 
trying  interval.  We  set  out,  therefore,  by  the  way 
of  Leyden  for  Amsterdam,  where  we  arrived  on  the 
10th.  Mr.  Adams  executed  1,000  bonds,  for  1,000 
florins  each,  and  deposited  them  in  the  hands  of  our 
bankers,  with  instructions,  however,  not  to  issue  them 
until  Congress  should  ratify  the  measure.  This  done, 
lie  returned  to  London,  and  1  set  out  for  Pari»," 


182  LIFE    OF   JEFFERSON. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  remaining  portion  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  publick 
life,  is  embraced  in  a  period  of  nineteen  years,  during 
which  he  held  successively,  in  the  government  of  his 
own  country,  the  high  and  honourable  offices  of  Secre- 
tary of  State,  Vice  President,  and  President  of  the  Uni- 
ted States.  The  history  of  this  is  so  familiar,  and,  indeed, 
so  many  now  living  have  been  eye  witnesses  of  its 
events,  that  it  is  unnecessary,  and  would  be  far  too 
prolix,  to  pursue  the  narrative  of  them  in  regular  de- 
tail ;  and  neither  could  this  be  done  without  writing 
the  history  of  the  United  States  for  a  certain  period. 
It  would,  therefore,  come  within  our  prescribed  limits, 
and  be  more  agreeable  to  the  reader,  when  we  select 
such  prominent  topicks  as  are  connected  with  the  sub- 
ject of  these  memoirs,  and  more  likely  to  excite  a  gen- 
eral interest. 

The  national  legislature,  under  the  new  system  of 
government,  convened  at  New  York  on  the  fourth  day 
of  March,  1789,  and  consisted  of  senators  and  repre- 
sentatives from  eleven  states.  A  quorum  of  both 
houses  did  not  attend  until  the  sixth  of  April,  when,  on 
counting  the  electoral  votes,  it  appeared  that  George 
Washington  was  unanimously  chosen  President,  and 
that  John  Adams  was  elected  Vice  President. 


LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON.  183 

Whatever  difference  of  opinion  existed  among  the 
people  of  the  United  States  with  respect  to  the  govern- 
ment itself,  there  was  none  as  to  the  person  who,  as 
their  first  chief  magistrate,  was  to  be  selected  to  ad- 
minister it.  All  eyes,  from  the  beginning,  were  turned 
to  General  Washington,  as  the  first  President :  and  he 
received  what  perhaps  no  individual,  in  so  high  a  sta- 
tion, in  any  age,  ever  before  received,  the  unanimous 
and  voluntary  suffrages  of  a  whole  nation. 

Informed  of  his  election  by  a  special  message,  the 
President  immediately  left  his  beloved  retreat,  and  set 
out  for  the  seat  of  government.  He  was  received  on 
his  way  by  the  sincere  congratulations  of  numerous 
publick  bodies  as  well  as  individuals. 

He  was  met  at  Elizabethtown  by  a  committee  from 
both  houses  of  Congress,  and  escorted  into  the  city  of 
New  York  amidst  the  acclamations  of  thousands. 

On  the  30th  of  April,  the  oath  of  office  was  admin- 
istered to  him  by  the  Chancellor  of  the  state  of  New 
York,  in  the  gallery  in  front  of  the  Senate  chamber, 
in  the  presence  of  the  members  of  the  Senate  and  House 
of  Representatives,  and  a  vast  concourse  of  citizens ; 
and  he  was  proclaimed  President  of  the  United  States. 
Every  countenance  beamed  with  inexpressible  joy  at 
the  sight  of  the  venerated  chief,  to  whom,  under  God, 
they  were  so  much  indebted,  not  only  for  their  inde- 
pendence, but  that  form  of  government,  in  the  admin- 
istration of  which  he  had  consented  to  take  a  share, 
and  which  he  had  in  their  presence  solemnly  sworn 
to  support. 

Shortly  after  this  impressive  investment,  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son returned  to  the  United  States,  having,  for  this  pui- 


184  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

pose,  obtained  leave  of  absence  for  a  short  time.  In 
filling  the  executive  offices,  the  President  had,  with 
that  wisdom  which  marked  all  the  acts  of  his  publick 
life,  carefully  selected  those  whose  talents  or  previous 
employments  rendered  them  peculiarly  fit  for  the  du- 
ties of  the  stations  to  which  they  were  appointed.  Mr. 
Jefferson  landed  on  November  23d  at  Norfolk,  and 
whilst  on  his  way  home,  received  a  letter  from  Presi- 
dent Washington,  covering  the  appointment  of  Secre- 
tary of  State,  under  the  new  constitution,  which  was  just 
commencing  its  operations.  To  this  the  following  re- 
ply was  returned :  "  I  have  received,  at  this  place, 
(Chesterfield,)  the  honour  of  your  letters  of  October 
the  13th  and  November  30th,  and  am  truly  flattered 
by  your  nomination  of  me  to  the  very  dignified  office 
of  Secretary  of  State ;  for  which  permit  me  here  to 
return  you  my  humble  thanks.  Could  any  circum- 
stances seduce  me  to  overlook  the  disproportion  be- 
tween its  duties  and  my  talents,  it  would  be  the  en- 
couragement of  your  choice.  But  when  I  contem- 
plate the  extent  of  that  office,  embracing  as  it  does  the 
principal  mass  of  domestick  administration,  together 
with  the  foreign,  I  cannot  be  insensible  of  my  ine- 
quality to  it ;  and  I  should  enter  on  it  with  gloomy 
forebodings  from  the  criticisms  and  censures  of  a  pub- 
lick,  just,  indeed,  in  their  intentions,  but  sometimes 
misinformed  and  misled,  and  always  too  respectable 
t®  be  neglected.  I  cannot  but  foresee  the  possibility 
that  this  may  end  disagreeably  for  me,  who,  having  no 
motive  to  publick  service  but  the  publick  satisfaction, 
would  certainly  retire  the  moment  that  satisfaction 
should  appear  to  languish.  On  the  other  hand,  I  feel 


LIFE    OF    JEFFETISON.  185 

<a  degree  of  familiarity  with  the  duties  of  my  present 
office,  as  far,  at  least,  as  I  am  capable  of  understanding 
its  duties.  The  ground  I  have  already  passed  over, 
enables  me  to  see  my  way  into  that  which  is  before  me. 
The  change  of  government,  too,  taking  place  in  the 
country  where  it  is  exercised,  seems  to  open  a  possi- 
bility of  procuring  from  the  new  rulers  some  new  ad- 
vantages in  commerce,  which  may  be  agreeable  to  our 
countrymen.  So  that,  as  far  as  my  fears,  my  hopes, 
or  my  inclination  might  enter  into  this  question,  I 
confess  they  would  not  leave  me  to  prefer  a  change. 
But  it  is  not  for  an  individual  to  choose  his  post.  You 
are  to  marshal  us  as  may  best  be  for  the  publick  good; 
and  it  is  only  in  the  case  of  its  being  indifferent  to 
you,  that  I  would  avail  myself  of  the  option  you  have 
so  kindly  offered  in  your  letter.  If  you  think  it  better 
to  transfer  me  to  another  post,  my  inclination  must  be 
no  obstacle ;  nor  shall  it  be,  if  there  is  any  desire  to 
suppress  the  office  I  now  hold,  or  to  reduce  its  grade. 
In  either  of  these  cases,  be  so  good  only  as  to  signify 
to  me  by  another  line  your  ultimate  wish,  and  I  shall 
conform  to  it  cordially.  If  it  should  be  to  remain  at 
New  York,  my  chief  comfort  will  be  to  work  under 
your  eye,  my  only  shelter  the  authority  of  your  name, 
and  the  wisdom  of  measures  to  be  dictated  by  you,  and 
implicitly  executed  by  me.  Whatever  you  may  be 
pleased  to  decide,  I  do  not  see  that  the  matters  which 
have  called  me  hither  will  permit  me  to  shorten  the 
stay  I  originally  asked  :  that  is  to  say,  to  set  out  on  my 
journey  northward  till  the  month  of  March.  As  early 
as  possible  in  that  month,  I  shall  have  the  honour  of 
paying  my  respects  to  you  in  New  York." 
17 


186  LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON. 

Mr.  Jefferson  arrived  at  Monticello  on  the  23d  of 
December,  where  he  received  a  second  letter  from  the 
President,  expressing  his  continued  wish  that  he  should 
take  his  station  with  him  at  New  York,  but  leaving 
him  still  at  liberty  to  continue  in  his  former  office,  if 
he  could  not  reconcile  himself  to  that  now  proposed. 
This  silenced  all  reluctance,  and  the  appointment  was 
accepted.  He  left  Monticello  on  xthe  first  of  March, 
1790,  for  New  York.  At  Philadelphia,  he  called  on 
the  venerable  Dr.  Franklin,  who  was  then  on  that  bed 
of  sickness  from  which  he  never  rose.  The  recent 
return  of  Mr.  Jefferson  from  a  country  in  which  the 
doctor  had  left  so  many  friends,  and  the  perilous  con- 
vulsions to  which  they  had  been  exposed,  revived  all 
his  anxieties  to  know  what  part  they  had  taken,  what 
had  been  their  course,  and  what  their  fate.  He  went 
over  all  in  succession,  with  a  rapidity  and  animation 
almost  too  much  for  his  strength.  A  circumstance  took 
place  during  this  interview  which  we  cannot  avoid  re- 
lating. "  When  all  his  inquiries,"  continues  Mr.  Jef- 
ferson, "  were  satisfied,  and  a  pause  took  place,  I  told 
him  I  had  learned  with  much  pleasure,  that  since  his 
return  to  America,  he  had  been  occupied  in  preparing 
for  the  world  the  history  of  his  own  life.  '  I  cannot 
say  much  of  that,'  said  he ;  '  but  I  will  give  you  a 
sample  of  what  I  shall  leave  it :'  and  he  directed  his 
little  grandson,  (William  Bache,)  who  was  standing 
by  the  bed  side,  to  hand  him  a  paper  from  the  table,  to 
which  he  pointed.  He  did  so  ;  and  the  doctor,  putting  it 
into  my  hands,  desired  me  to  take  it,  and  read  it  at  my 
leisure.  It  was  about  a  quire  of  folio  paper,  written  in 
a  large  and  running  hand,  very  like  his  own.  I  looked 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON,  187 

into  it  slightly,  then  shut  it,  and  said  I  would  accept 
his  permission  to  read  it,  and  would  carefully  return 
it.  He  said,  '  No,  keep  it.'  Not  certain  of  his  mean- 
ing, I  again  looked  into  it,  folded  it  for  my  pocket,  and 
said  again,  I  would  certainly  return  it.  '  No,'  said  he, 
'  ke«p  it.'  1  put  it  into  my  pocket,  and,  shortly  after, 
took  leave  of  him.  He  died  on  the  17th  of  the  ensuing 
month  of  April ;  and  as  I  understood  that  he  had  be- 
queathed all  his  papers  to  his  grandson,  William  Tem- 
ple Franklin,  I  immediately  wrote  to  Mr.  Franklin,  to 
inform  him  I  possessed  this  paper,  which  I  should 
consider  as  his  property,  and  would  deliver  to  his 
order.  He  came  on  immediately  to  New  York,  and 
called  on  me  for  it,  and  I  delivered  it  to  him.  As  he 
put  it  into  his  pocket,  he  said  carelessly,  he  had  either 
the  original  or  another  copy  of  it,  I  do  not  recollect 
which.  This  last  expression  struck  my  attention  for- 
cibly, and  for  the  first  time  suggested  to  me  the  thought 
that  Dr.  Franklin  had  meant  it  as  a  confidential  depos- 
ite  in  my  hands,  and  that  I  had  done  wrong  in  parting 
from  it.  I  have  not  yet  seen  the  collection  he  published 
of  Dr.  Franklin's  works,  and  therefore  know  not  if  this 
is  among  them.  I  have  been  told  it  is  not.  It  contained 
a  narrative  of  the  negotiations  between  Dr.  Franklin 
and  the  British  ministry  when  he  was  endeavouring 
to  prevent  the  contest  of  arms  which  followed.  The 
negotiation  was  brought  about  by  the  intervention  of 
Lord  Howe  and  his  sister,  who,  I  believe,  was  called 
Lady  Howe,  but  I  may  misremember  her  title.  Lord 
Howe  seems  to  have  been  friendly  to  America,  and 
exceedingly  anxious  to  prevent  a  rupture.  His  inti- 
macy with  Dr.  Franklin,  and  his  position  with  the 


188  LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON. 

ministry,  induced  him  to  undertake  a  mediation  be- 
tween them,  in  which  his  sister  seemed  to  have  been 
associated.  They  carried  from  one  to  the  other,  back- 
wards and  forwards,  the  several  propositions  and  an- 
swers which  passed,  and  seconded  with  their  own 
intercessions,  the  importance  of  mutual  sacrifices,  to 
preserve  the  peace  and  connexion  of  the  two  countries. 
I  remember  that  Lord  North's  answers  were  dry,  un- 
yielding, in  the  spirit  of  unconditional  submission,  and 
betrayed  an  absolute  indifference  to  the  occurrences  of 
a  rupture  ;  and  he  said  to  the  mediators  distinctly,  at 
last,  that  '  a  rebellion  was  not  to  be  deprecated  on  the 
part  of  Great  Britain  ;  that  the  confiscations  it  would 
produce,  would  provide  for  many  of  their  friends.' — 
This  expression  was  reported  by  the  mediators  to  Dr. 
Franklin,  and  indicated  so  cool  and  calculative  a  pur- 
pose in  the  ministry,  as  to  render  compromise  hopeless, 
and  the  negotiation  was  discontinued.  If  this  is  not 
among  the  papers  published,  we  ask,  what  has  become 
of  it  ?  I  delivered  it  with  my  own  hands  into  those  of 
Temple  Franklin.  It  certainly  established  views  so 
atrocious  in  the  British  government,  that  its  suppres- 
sion would,  to  them,  be  worth  a  great  price.  But  could 
the  grandson  of  Dr.  Franklin  be,'  in  such  degree,  an 
accomplice  in  the  parricide  of  the  memory  of  his  im- 
mortal grandfather  ?  The  suspension,  for  more  than 
twenty  years,  of  the  general  publication,  bequeathed 
and  confided  to  him,  produced  for  a  while  hard  suspi- 
cions against  him  ;  and  if,  at  last,  all  are  not  published, 
a  part  of  these  suspicions  may  remain  with  some." 

Mr.  Jefferson  arrived  at  New  York  on  the  21st  of 
March,  where  Congress  was  in  session. 


LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON.  189 

Mr.  Jefferson  was  thus  placed  at  the  head  of  th« 
department  of  Foreign  Affairs,  Mr.  Hamilton  at  the 
head  of  the  Treasury,  and  Mr.  Knox  was  made  Secre- 
tary of  the  War  Department ;  John  Jay  was  appointed 
Chief  Justice;  John  Rutledge,  James  Wilson,  William 
Gushing,  Robert  H.  Harrison,  and  John  Blair,  Associ- 
ate Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court:  and  Edmund  Ran- 
dolph, Attorney  General.  Nicholas  Eveleigh  was  ap- 
pointed Comptroller  ;  Oliver  Wolcott,  Auditor  j  and  Jo- 
seph Nourse,  Register. 

Of  all  the  offices  under  the  government  of  the  Uni- 
ted States,  says  one  well  qualified  to  give  an  opinion, 
there  is  no  one  which  calls  for  the  exercise  of  such  va- 
rious abilities,  such  extensive  knowledge  of  laws  and 
facts,  such  prompt  decision  on  questions  involving 
principles  of  the  highest  political  import,  as  the  depart- 
ment of  state :  and  in  proportion  to  the  infancy  of  the 
office  itself,  and  the  new  and  peculiar  situation  of  the 
government,  was  the  difficulty  of  the  tas*k  assumed  by 
Mr.  Jefferson.  The  subsequent  events  of  his  political 
life  have  been  tinged  by  the  hue  of  party,  and  perhaps 
the  time  has  not  arrived  when  we  can  view  them  with 
strict  impartiality,  and  weigh  the  policy  of  his  meas- 
ures, without  dwelling  too  much  on  circumstances 
merely  temporary  or  local.  But  all  unite  in  the  can- 
did acknowledgment  that  the  duties  of  this  station 
were  performed  with  a  prudence,  intelligence,  and  zeal 
honourable  to  himself,  and  useful  to  his  country.  In 
the  intercourse  with  foreign  nations,  the  laws  of  a  strict 
neutrality,  at  a  period  of  peculiar  difficulty,  were  main- 
tained with  unyielding  firmness  and  consummate  abil- 
ity; the  dignity  of  the  nation  was  remembered'  and; 
17* 


1:96  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON'. 

supported ;  and  the  interests  of  the  citizens  were  cher- 
ished and  protected.  At  home,  he  turned  his  attention 
to  objects  of  a  minuter  character,  but  of  equal  impor- 
tance ;  he  laid  before  Congress,  from  time  to  time,  re- 
ports on  various  branches  of  domestick  policy,  which 
displayed  at  orice  the  extent  and  variety  of  his  genius, 
the  depth  of  his  information,  and  the  zeal  with  which 
he  applied  them  both  to  the  peculiar  duties  of  his  situ- 
ation' It  has  been  observed,  that  these  papers  evince 
not  only  the  feelings  of  a  patriot,  and  the  judgement  of 
an  accomplished  statesman,  but  display  at  the  same 
time,  uncommon  talents  and  knowledge  as-  a  mathe- 
matician and  natural  philosopher,  the  deepest  research 
as  a  historian,  and  an  enlarged  and  intimate  acquaint- 
ance with  the  business  and  concerns  of  a  merchant. 

The  national  legislature,  during  its  first  session,  was 
principally  occupied  in  providing  revenues  for  the  long 
exhausted  treasury,  in  establishing  a  judiciary,  in  or- 
ganizing the  executive  departments  in  detail,  and  in 
framing  amendments  to  the  constitution,  agreeably  to 
the  suggestion  of  the  President.  The  members  imme- 
diately entered  upon  the  exercise  of  those  powers  so 
long  refused  under  the  old  system  of  general  govern- 
ment. They  imposed  a  tunnage  duty,  as  well  as  du- 
ties on  various  imported  articles.  In  the  exercise  of 
these  powers,  they  did  not  lose  sight  of  the  navigating 
interest  of  their  country,  which  had  so  long  been  at  the 
mercy  of  other  nations. 

We  have  always  deemed  it  the  peculiar  charity  of 
Heaven,  is  the  remark  of  a  distinguished  writer,  that, 
at  this  time,  such  a  man  as  George  Washington  was 
given  to  fill  the  high  and  novel  station  of  first  magis- 


11TE   OF   JEFFERSOIT.  19  f 

frafe  of  the  Union.  One  of  different  talents,  one  less 
endowed  with  exalted  and  uncommon  qualities,  one 
who  was  merely  respected  as  a  citizen,  or  knowu 
merely  as  a  statesman  of  routine,  in  short,  one  who 
was  not  venerated  as  a  father,  would  have  brought  to 
the  first  operations  of  this  new  and  complicated  gov- 
ernment, nothing  to  enforce  it  beyond  its  own  intrin- 
sick  merits.  It  would  have  been  less  impressive  and 
efficient ;  and  although  republican  principles  and  nab* 
its  would  undoubtedly  have  carried  it  through,  yet  it 
would  have  been  coldly,  and  sometimes  reluctantly 
adopted.  The  slow  progress  which  it  would  then 
have  made,  the  opposition  which,  at  times,  would  prob- 
ably have  been  presented  by  state  administrations,  feel- 
ing themselves  somewhat  shorn  of  their  power,  were 
prevented  by  the  overbearing  but  unassuming  influence 
of  a  name  which  memory  ever  found  prominent  irv 
military  recollections,  and  always  safe  in  civil  and  do-i 
mestick  action. 

Nor  is  it  at  all  inconsistent  with  republicanism,  that 
among  men  all  politically  equal,  publick  preference 
should  accompany  those  who  are  the  most  meritorious. 
There  cannot  be  an -agrarian  law  of  the  mind.  Tal- 
ent and  virtue  must  ascend,  and  must  acquire  the  con- 
fidence and  trust  of  the  community.  But  is  there  no 
danger?  May  not  confidence  and  trust  be  carried  too 
far?  The  answer  is  found  in  a  written  constitution, 
full  of  checks  and  balances ;  and  we  may  confidently 
throw  into  the  scale  the  moderation  and  good  sense  of 
our  citizens.  Compare  this  country  with  all  we  know 
of  other  countries — the  North  American  republick 
with  every  other  republick — the  petty,  rancorous  de^ 


192  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

mocracies  of  ancient  Greece — the  disjointed,  venal 
Romans — the  aristocracies  of  Venice  and  Genoa,  and 
others  of  modern  times — the  ephemeral  republick  of 
France — the  southern  part  of  our  own  continent  in 
its  present  awful  convulsions — do  we  not  pjerceive  that 
we  have  a  natural  character  distinct  from  all  of  them  ? 
Here  it  would  be  impossible  for  a  Julius  Caesar  to  ar- 
ray a  military  force  against  the  liberties  of  his  coun- 
try ;  it  would  be  unnecessary  to  expel  an  Aristides  by 
ostracism.  We  adhere  to  the  letter  of  the  constitution ; 
it  is  the  safest  rule.  No  publick  instrument  ever  was 
so  cautiously,  so  accurately  framed.  There  is  in  it 
nothing  superfluous,  nothing  defective.  The  letter  is 
itself  the  spirit  of  it. 

"Mr.  Jefferson  had  scarcely  entered  on  the  duties  of 
his  office,  when  Congress  .referred  to  him  a  subject 
whose  nature  and  importance  called  for  the  exercise  of 
a  mature  judgement,  while  its  intricacy  was  such,  as 
to  require  in  the  investigation  more  than  ordinary  sci- 
entifick  knowledge.  They  directed  him  to  prepare 
and  report  a  plan  for  establishing  a  uniform  system  of 
currency,  weights  and  measures.  This  was  a  subject, 
admitted  on  all  hands,  which  demanded  very  se- 
rious attention.  It  had  already  attracted  the  notice  of 
the  most  enlightened  European  nations  ;  and  a  partial 
experiment  in  one  branch,  that  of  the  publick  curren- 
cy, had  been  received  throughout  the  United  States 
with  general  approbation  and  unexpected  success. — 
The  established  system  of  weights  and  measures  was 
alike  inconvenient  and  absurd.  In  the  ages  of  feudal 
ignorance,  when  the  sallies  of  passion,  the  dictates  of 
unrestrained  ambition,,  or  the  gratification  of  each 


IIFE    OF   JEFFERSON.  19$ 

changing  caprice,  were  all  that  a  monarch  asked  as 
the  foundation  of  his  laws,'  it  was  at  least  not  incon- 
sistent, that  the  length  of  his  arm  or  foot  should  regu- 
late the  measures  of  the  nation.  But  the  necessities  of 
modern  commercial  intercourse,  seem  to  demand  a 
scale  more  certain  and  convenient ;  while  the  improve- 
ments of  modern  science  offered  standards  of  unerring 
correctness  and  uniformity.  The  first  object  that  pre- 
sents itself  in  such  an  inquiry,  is  the  discovery  of  some 
measure  of  invariable  length.  For  this  purpose,  Mr.. 
Jefferson  proposed  to  select  a  pendulum  vibrating  se- 
conds; and,  after  answering  the  various  objections 
which  may  be  made  to  such  a  standard,  he  submits  to 
Congress  two  alternative  plans  for  its  adoption.  By 
the  first  he  proposes,  that  if,  in  the  opinion  of  Con- 
gress, the  difficulty  of  changing  the  established  habits 
of  the  nation,  renders  it  expedient  to  retain  the  present 
weights  and  measures,  yet  that  they  should  be  render- 
ed uniform  and  invariable,  by  bringing  them  to  the 
same  invariable  standard.  With  this  view,  he  enters 
minutely  into  the  details  of  the  present  system,  its  his- 
tory, the  remarkable  coincidence  to  be  discovered  in 
some  of  its  varieties,  its  useless  inconsistencies,  and 
the  extreme  ease,  and  trifling  variation,  with  which  it 
may  be  rendered  uniform  and,  stable." 

In  the  second  alternative  he  proceeds  to  say,  "  If  it 
be  thought  that  either  now  or  at  any  future  time,  the 
citizens  of  the  United  States  may  be  induced  to  under- 
take a  thorough  reformation  of  the  whole  system  of 
measures,  weights,  and  coins,  reducing  every  branch 
to  the  same  decimal  ratio  already  established  in  their 
coins,  and  thus  bringing  the  calculation  of  the  princi* 


194  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

pal  affairs  of  life  within  the  arithmetick  of  every  man 
who  can  multiply  and  divide  plain  numbers,  greater 
changes  will  be  necessary." 

These  changes  he  points  out  briefly  and  distinctly, 
as  being  such  as  are  easy  of  introduction,  and  useful 
both  to  the  citizens  of  our  own  and  foreign  countries. 
"  A  gradual  introduction,77  he  concludes,  "  would  lessen 
the  inconveniences  which  might  attend  too  sudden  a 
substitution,  even  of  an  easier  for  a  more  difficult  sys- 
tem. After  a  given  term,  for  instance,  it  might  begin 
in  the  custom-houses,  where  the  merchants  would  be- 
come familiarized  with  it.  After  a  further  term,  it 
might  be  introduced  into  all  legal  proceedings :  and 
merchants  and  traders  in  foreign  commodities  might 
be  required  to  use  it  in  their  dealings  with  one  another. 
After  a  still  further  term,  all  other  descriptions  of  peo- 
ple might  receive  it  into  common  use.  Too  long  a 
postponement,  on  the  other  hand,  would  increase  the 
difficulties  of  its  reception  with  the  increase  of  our 
population." 

Notwithstanding  this  able  report  of  Mr.  Jefferson, 
the  system  recommended  by  him  was  not  adopted ;  and 
there  has  as  yet  been  no  change  in  the  existing  laws. 
But  it  is  to  be  hoped,  that  the  views  of  Mr.  Jefferson 
will  not  be  lost  sight  of  among  his  countrymen,  and 
that  an  important  improvement  will  not  be  relinquished 
from  a  fear  that  their  habits  are  so  firmly  fixed  as  to 
preclude  its  introduction. 

"  On  the  18th  of  January,  1791,  Mr.  Jefferson  made 
a  report,  as  Secretary  of  State,  on  the  subject  of  tun- 
nage  duties  payable  by  France.  Very  soon  after  the 
meeting  of  the  first  Congress,  the  same  subject  had 


tj 

LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON.  195 

Ibeen  discussed  in  that  body  with  considerable  anima- 
tion, and  an  act  had  passed  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, embracing  a  discrimination  in  these  duties  highly  * 
favourable  to  France.  The  principle  thus  adopted,  co- 
incided with  the  general  sentiments  of  the  nation,  and 
appeared  to  be  called  for,  not  by  this  circumstance  only, 
hut  by  the  strongest  dictates  of  national  gratitude,  as 
well  as  those  of  sound  policy.  This  discrimination 
was  rejected,  however,  by  the  Senate,  and  the  House 
of  Representatives  were  obliged,  reluctantly,  to"  yield. 
What  it  was  thus  deemed  inexpedient  to  grant,  even  as 
a  matter  of  favour  or  policy,  the  French  government 
demanded  as  a  right  under  the  treaty  of  amity  and  com- 
merce of  1778.  The  demand  was  referred  to  Mr.  Jef- 
ferson, by  the  President,  and  elicited  from  him  the  able 
report  to  which  we  have  alluded.  In  this  he  clearly 
proved,  that  the  article  of  the  treaty  on  which  the 
French  government  founded  their  claim,  was  evident- 
ly meant  to  extend  no  further  than  to  the  exemption  of 
the  United  States  from  a  duty  from  which  other  favour- 
ed nations  were  also  exempted,  and  that,  in  return, 
France  could  claim  of  our  government  no  greater  ad- 
vantages than  favoured  nations  also  received  of  us. 
That  if  the  article  in  question  had  a  more  extended 
relation,  it  applied  reciprocally  to  each  government, 
and  would  lead  to  the  mutual  abolition  of  duties 
highly  useful  to  both,  and  to  consequences  in  which 
it  was  hardly  conceivable  that  either  party  could  see 
its  interest.  But  he  appears  to  incline  to  the  opin- 
ion, that  if  France  persisted  in  claiming  this  ex- 
emption, there  were  extrinsick  causes  which  might 
justify,  and  even  .render  advisable,  some  relaxation 


LIFE    OX   JEFFERSON* 

in  her  favour ;  not  on  the  grounds  on  which  it  was 
demanded,  but  from  the  effect  it  would  have  on  the 
finances,  revenue,  and  commerce  of  our  own  country. 
This  report  the  President  immediately  submitted  to 
the  Senate  of  the  United  States. 

To  aid  in  the  management  of  the  national  finances, 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  had  previously  recom- 
mended the  establishment  of  a  bank  ;  and  in  February, 
1791,  an  act  passed  for  that  purpose.  The  preamble 
disclosed  the  principal  reasons  for  its  adoption,  declar- 
ing "  that  it  would  be  conducive  to  the  successful  con- 
ducting of  the  national  finances,  give  facility  to  the 
obtaining  of  loans  for  the  use  of  the  government  in 
sudden  emergencies,"  and  would  also  be  "  productive 
of  considerable  advantage  to  trade  and  industry  in 
general." 

The  capital  stock  of  the  bank  was  ten  millions  of 
dollars  ;  two  millions  to  be  subscribed  for  the  benefit  of 
the  United  States,  and  the  residue  by  individuals.  One 
fourth  of  the  sums  subscribed  by  individuals  was  to  be 
paid  in. gold  and  silver,  and  three  fourths  in  the  publick 
debt.  By  the  act  of  incorporation,  it  was  to  be  a  bank 
of  discount  as  well  as  deposite,  and  its  bills,  which 
were  payable  in  gold  and  silver  on  demand,  were  made 
receivable  in  all  payments  to  the  United  States.  The 
bank  was  located  at  Philadelphia,  with  power  in  the 
directors  to  establish  offices  of  discount  and  deposite 
only,  whereever  they  should  think  fit  within  the 
United  States.  The  duration  of  the  charter  was  limited 
to  the  fourth  of  March,  1811;  and  the  faith  of  the 
United  States  was  pledged,  that  during  that  period  no 
other  bank  should  be  established  under  their  authority. 


LIFE    Or    JttFFEKSON.  T97 

One  of  the  fundamental  articles  of  the  incorporation 
was,  that  no  loan  should  be  made  to  the  United  States 
for  more  than  one  hundred  thousand  dollars,  or  to  any 
particular  state  for  more  than  fifty  thousand,  or  to  any 
foreign  Prince  or  state,  unless  previously  authorized 
by  a  law  of  the  United  States.  The  books  wet e  open- 
ed for  subscriptions  in  July,  1791,  and  a  much  larger 
sum  subscribed  than  was  allowed  by  the  charter;  and 
the  bank  went  into  successful  operation.  This  measure 
lwas  not  adopted  without  warm  and  violent  debates. 

It  was  said  in  opposition,  in  the  first  place,  that  Con- 
gress had  no  power,  under  the  constitution,  to  create 
this  or  any  other  corporation  ;  in  the  second  place,  that 
so  large  a  moneyed  institution  would,  in  its  effects,  be 
highly  injurious  to  the  community.  Its  advocates,  on 
the  other  hand,  contended,  generally,  that  the  establish- 
ment of  an  institution  of  this  kind,  though  not  within 
the  express  words  of  the  constitution,  was  among  the 
incidental  powers  contemplated  by  that  part  of  the  in- 
strument which  enabled  Congress  to  make  all  laws 
necessary  and  proper  for  carrying  into  execution  the 
powers  expressly  granted. 

The  President,  before  approving  the  bill,  requested 
the  opinions  of  the  members  of  his  cabinet,  in  writing, 
as  to  its  constitutionality.  The  Secretary  of  State,  and 
Attorney  General,  were  of  opinion,  that  the  bill  was 
unconstitutional,  while  the  Secretaries  of  the  Treasury, 
and  War,  were  of  a  different  opinion,  and  concurred 
with  the  majority  in  Congress.  Mr.  Jefferson  was  de- 
cidedly and  warmly  opposed  to  this  institution,  not  only 
on  account  of  its  unconstitutionality,  but  on  account  of 
the  danger  to  be  apprehended  to  government  from  the 
18 


198  LIFE    OP    JEFFERSON. 

exorbitancy  of  its  power,  and  the  injury  which  it  might 
inflict  on  community.  The  following  is  his  official 
opinion  on  the  constitutional  question : 

"  The  bill  for  establishing  a  national  bank,  under- 
takes, among  other  things, 

1.  To  form  the  subscribers  into  a  corporation. 

2.  To  enable  them,  in  their  corporate  capacities,  to 
receive  grants  of  land;  and  so  far,  is  against  the  laws 
of  Mortmain. 

3.  To  make  alien  subscribers  capable  of  holding 
lands;  and  so  far,  is  against  the  laws  of  Alienage. 

4.  To  transmit  these  lands,  on  the  death  of  a  pro- 
prietor, to   a  certain   line  of  successors ;  and  so  far, 
changes  the  course  of  Descents. 

5.  To  put  the  lands  out  of  the  reach  of  forfeiture  and 
escheat:  and  so  far,  is  against  the  laws  of  Forfeiture 
and  Escheat. 

6.  To  transmit  personal  chattels  to  successors  in  a 
certain  line  ;  and  so  far,  is  against  the  laws  of  Distri- 
bution. 

7.  To  give   them  the  sole  and  exclusive  right  of 
banking  under  the  national  authority;  and  so  far,  is 
against  the  laws  of  Monopoly. 

8.  To  communicate  to  them  a  power  to  make  laws 
paramount  to  the  laws  of  the  states:  for  so  they  must 
be  construed,  to  protect  the  institution  from  the  control 
of  the  state  legislatures ;  and  so,  probably,  they  will  be 
construed. 

I  consider  the  foundation  of  the  constitution  as  laid 
on  this  ground,  that  '  all  powers  not  delegated  to  the 
United  States  by  the  constitution,  nor  prohibited  by  it 
to  the  states,  are  reserved  to  the  states  or  to  the  people.' 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  199 

(Twelfth  amendment.)  To  take  a  single  step  beyond 
the  boundaries  thus  specially  drawn  around  the  powers 
of  Congress,  is  to  take  possession  of  a  boundless  field 
of  power,  no  longer  susceptible  of  any  def  nition. 

The  incorporation  of  a  bank,  and  the  powers  as- 
sumed by  this  bill,  have  not,  in  my  opinion,  been 
delegated  to  the  United  States  by  the  constitution. 

I.  They  are  not  among  the  powers  specially  enu- 
merated. For  these  are, 

1.  A  power  to  lay  taxes  for  the  purpose  of  paying 
the  debts  of  the  United  States.     But  no  debt  is  paid  by 
this  bill,  nor  any  tax  laid.     Were  it  a  bill  to  raise 
money,  its  origination  in  the  Senate  would  condemn,  it 
by  the  constitution. 

2.  To  '  borrow  money.'     But  this  bill  neither  bor- 
rows money,  nor  ensures  the  borrowing  it.     The  pro- 
prietors of  the  bank  will  be  just  as  free  as  any  other 
money-holders,  to  lend  or  not  to  lend  their  money  to 
the  publick.     The  operation  proposed  in  the  bill,  first 
to  lend  them  two  millions,  and  then  borrow  them  back 
again,  cannot  change  the  nature  of  the  latter  act,  which 
will  still  be  a  payment  and  not  a  loan,  call  it  by  what 
name  you  please. 

3.  '  To   regulate  commerce  with  foreign  nations, 
and  among  the  states,  and  with  the  Indian  tribes.'     To 
enact  a  bank,  and  to  regulate  commerce,  are  two  very 
different  acts.     He  who  erects  a  bank  creates  a  subject 
of  commerce  in  its  bills ;  so  does  he  who  makes  a 
bushel  of  wheat,  or  digs  a  dollar  out  of  the  mines. — 
Yet  neither  of  these  persons  regulates  commerce  there- 
by.    To  make  a  thing  which  may  be  bought  and  sold, 
is  not  to  prescribe  regulations  for  buying  and  selling. 


200  EIFE  OF  JBFFERSOJT. 

Besides,  if  this  were  an  exercise  of  the  power  of  reg- 
ulating commerce,  it  would  be  void,  as  extending  as 
much  to  the  internal  commerce  of  every  state,  as  to  its 
external.  For  the  power  given  to  Congress  by  the 
constitution,  does  not  extend  to  the  internal  regulation 
of  the  commerce  of  a  state,  (that  is  to  say,  of  the  com* 
merce  between  citizen  and  citizen,)  which  remains  ex- 
clusively within  its  own  legislature ;  but  to  its  external 
commerce  only,  that  is  to  say,  its  commerce  with  anoth- 
er state,  or  with  foreign  nations,  or  with  the  Indian 
tribes.  Accordingly,  the  bill  does  not  propose  the 
measure  as  a  '  regulation  of  trade,'  but  as  '  productive 
of  considerable  advantage  to  trade.' 

Still  less  are  these  powers  covered  by  any  other  of 
the  special  enumerations. 

II.  Nor  are  they  within  either  of  the  general  phra- 
ses, which  are  the  two  following. 

1,  *  To  lay  taxes  to  provide  for  the  general  welfare 
of  the  United  States  ;'  that  is  to  say,  *  to  lay  taxes  for 
the  purpose  of  providing  for  the  general  welfare.' — 
For  the  laying  of  taxes  is  the  power,  and  the  general 
welfare  the  purpose  for  which  the  power  is  to  be  ex- 
ercised. Congress  are  not  to  lay  taxes,  ad  libitum,  for 
any  purpose  they  please ;  but  only  to  pay  the  debts, 
or  provide  for  the  welfare  of  the  Union.  In  like 
manner,  they  are  not  to  do  any  thing"  they  please  to 
provide  for  the  general  welfare,  but  only  to  lay  taxes 
for  that  purpose.  To  consider  the  latter  phrase,  not  as 
Describing  the  purpose  of  the  first,  but  as  giving  a  dis- 
tinct and  independent  power  to  do  any  act  they  please 
which  might  be  for  the  good  of  the  Union,  would  ren- 
ter all  the  preceding  and  subsequent  enumerations  of 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  201 

power  completely  useless.  It  would  reduce  the  whol» 
instrument  to  a  single  phrase,  that  of  instituting-  a  Con- 
gress with  the  power  to  do  whatever  would  be  fou  the 
good  of  the  United  States:  aid  as  they  would  be  the 
sole  ju.lges  of  the  good  or  evil,  it  would  be  also  a  pow- 
er to  do  whatever  evil  they  pleased.  It  is  an  establish- 
ed rule  of  construction,  when  a  phrase  will  bear  either 
of  two  meanings,  to  give  it  that  which  \vill  allow  some 
meaning  to  the  other  parts  of  the  instrument,  and  not 
that  which  \vill  render  all  the  others  useless.  Certain- 
ly, no  sucli  universal  power  was  meant  to  be  given 
them.  It  was  intended  to  lace  them  up  straitly  within  the 
enumerated  powers,  and  those  without  which,  as  means, 
these  powers  could  not  be  carried  into  effect.  It  is 
known  that  the  very  power  now  proposed  as  a  means, 
was  rejected  as  an  end  by  the  convention  which  form- 
ed the.  constitution.  A  proposition  was  made  to  them, 
to  authorize  Congress  to  open  canals,  and  an  amenda- 
tory one,  to  empower  them  to  incorporate.  But  the 
whole  was  rejected  :  and  one  of  the  reasons  of  rejec- 
tion urgvd  in  the  debate  was,  that  they  then  would 
hav*3  a  power  to  erect  a  bank,  which  would  render  the 
great  cities,  wher?  there  were  prejudices  an  i  jealousies 
on  that  subject,  adverse  to  the  reception  of  the  consti- 
tution. 

2.  The  s.\:on  i  general  phrase  is,  'to  make  all  laws 
necessary  a-iJ  proper  for  carrying  into  execution  the 
enumerated  j>o\v«rs.'  B  it  they  can  all  be  carried  into 
execution  with  oit  a  b-in'c.  A  bank,  therefore,  is  not 
»s.?«j?  try,  and  cons^'unlly,  not  authorized  by  this 
phrase. 

It  his  been  mu^h  urgei,  tint  a  bank  will  give  great 
18* 


202  EWE  OF  JEFFERSOff* 

facility  or  convenience  to  the  collection  of  taxes.  Strp*- 
pose  this  were  true;  yet  the  constitution  allows  only 
the  means  which  are  'necessary,'  not  those  which  are 
merely  'convenient,'  for  effecting  the  enumerated  pow- 
ers. If  such  a  latitude  of  construction  be  allowed  to  this, 
phrase,  as  to  give  any  non-enumerated  power,  it  will  go 
to  every  one ;  for  there  is  no  one  which  ingenuity  may 
not  torture  into  a  convenience,  in-  some  way  or  other, 
to  some  one  of  so  long  a  list  of  enumerated  powers. . 
It  would  swallow  up  all  the  delegated  powers,  and 
reduce  the  whole  to  one  phrase,  as  before  observed. 
Therefore,  it  was,  that  the  constitution  restrained  them 
to  the  necessary  means,  that  is  to  say,  to  those  means 
without  which  the  grant  of  the  power  would  be  nuga- 
tory. 

But  let  us  examine  this  'convenience',  and  see  what 
it  is.  The  report  on  this  subject  states  the  only  gene- 
ral convenience  to  be,  the  preventing  the  transpor- 
tation and  re-transportation  of  money  between  the 
States  and  the  treasury.  (For  I  pass  over  the  increase 
of  circulating  medium  ascribed  to  it  as  a  merit,  and 
which,  according  to  my  ideas  of  paper  money,  is  clearly 
a  demerit.)  Every  state  will  have  to  pay  a  sum  of, 
tax  money  into  the  treasury ;  and  the  treasury  will 
have  to  pay  in  every  state  a  part  of  the  interest  on  the 
publick  debt,  and  salaries  to  the  officers  of  govern- 
ment resident  in  that  state.  In  most  of  the  states, 
there  will  be  still  a  surplus  of  tax  money,  to  come  up 
to  the  seat  of  government,  for  the  officers  residing  there. 
The  payments  of  interest  and  salary  in  each  state,  may 
be  made  by  treasury  orders  on  the  state  collector.— 
This  will  take  up  the  greater  part  of  the  money  he 


LIFE  OF  JEFFEBtfOH1.  205 

5as  collected  in  his  state,  and  consequently,  prevent  the 
great  mass  of  it  from  being  drawn  out  of  the  state. — 
If  there  be  a  balance  of  commerce  in  favour  of  that  state, 
against  the  one  in  which  the  government  resides,  the 
surplus  of  taxes  will  be  remitted  by  the  bills  of  ex- 
change drawn  for  that  commercial  balance.  And  so 
it  must  be  if  there  were  a  bank.  But  if  there  be  no 
balance  of  commerce,  either  direct  or  circuitous,  all 
the  banks  in  the  world  could  not  bring  us  the  surplus 
of  taxes  but  in  the  form  of  money.  Treasury  orders,  then, 
and  bills  of  exchange,  may  prevent  the  displacement 
of  the  main  mass  of  the  money  collected,  without  the 
aid  of  any  bank;  and  where  these  fall,  it  cannot  be 
prevented,  even  with  that' aid. 

Perhaps,  indeed,  bank  bills  may  be  a  more  conve- 
nient vehicle  than  treasury  orders.     But  a  little  dif~  ' 
ference  in  the  degree  of  convenience,  cannot  constitute 
the  necessity  which  the  constitution  makes  the  ground 
for  assuming  any  non-enumerated  power. 

Besides,  the  existing  banks  will,  without  doubt,  en- 
ter  into  arrangements  for  lending  their  agency,  and  the 
more  favourable,  as  there  will  be  a  competition  among 
them  for  it ;  whereas  this  bill  delivers  us  up  bound  to 
the  national  bank,  who  are  free  to  refuse  all  arrange- 
ments but  on  their  own  terms,  and  the  publick  not  free, 
on  such  refusal,  to  employ  any  other  bank.  That  of  ^ 
Philadelphia,  I  believe,  now  does  this  business  by  their 
post  notes,  which,  by  an  arrangement  with  the  treasu- 
ry, are  paid  by  any  state  collector  to  whom  they  are 
presented.  This  expedient  alone,  suffices  to  prevent 
the  existence  of  that  necessity  which  may  justify  'the 
tssumptiocuof  anontemimeratedppwepj<asa  means  fop 


204  LIFE    Of    JEFFERSOtf. 

carrying  into  effect  an  enumerated  one.  The  thing 
may  be  done,  and  has  been  done,  and  well  done,  w'th- 
out'this  assumption;  therefore,  it  does  not  stand  on  that 
degree  of  necessity  which  can  honestly  justify  it. 

It  may  be  said,  that  a  bank,  whose  bills  would  have 
a  currency  all  over  the  states,  would  be  more  conve- 
nient than  one  whose  currency  is  limited  to  a  single 
state.  So  it  would  be  still  more  convenient,  that  there 
should  be  a  bank  whose  bills  should  have  a  currency 
all  over  the  world.  But  it  does  not  follow  from  this 
superiour  conveniency,  that  there  exists  any  where  a 
power  to  establish  such  a  bank,  or  that  the  world  may 
not  go  on  very  well  without  it. 

Can  it  be  thought  that  the  constitution  intended,  that 
for  a  shade  or  two  of  convenience,  more  or  less,  Con- 
gress should  be  authorized  to  break  down  the  most 
ancient  and  fundamental  laws  of  the  several  states, 
such  as  those  against  mortmain,  the  laws  of  alienage, 
the  rules  of  descant,  the  acts  of  distribution,  the  laws 
of  escheat  and  forfeiture,  and  the  laws  of  monopoly? 
Nothing  but  a  necessity  invincible  hy  any  ether  means, 
can  justify  such  a  prostration  of  laws,  which  constitute 
the  pillars  of  our  whole  system  of  jurisprudence.  Will 
Congress  be  too  strait-laced  to  carry  the  constitution 
into  honest  effect,  unless  they  may  pass  over  the  foun- 
dation laws  of  the  state  governments,  for  the  slightest 
convenience  to  them  ? 

The  negative  of  the  President  is  the  shield  provided 
by  the  constitution  to  protect  against  the  invasions  of 
the  legislature,  1,  the  rights  of  the  Executive:  2,  of 
the  judiciary  ;  3,  of  the  state  and  state  legislatures. 
The  present  is  the  case  of  a  right  remaining  exeli* 


LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON.  205 

Bively  with  the  states,  and  is,  consequently,  one  of  those 
intended  by  the  constitution  to  be  placed  under  his 
protection. 

It  must  be  added,  however,  that  unless  the  President's 
mind,  on  a  view  of  every  thing  which  is  urged  for  and 
against  this  bill,  is  tolerably  clear  that  it  is  unauthor- 
ized by  the  constitution,  if  the  pro  and  the  con  hang  so 
even  as  to  balance  his  judgement,  a  just  respect  for  the 
wisdom  of  the  legislature  would  naturally  decide  the 
balance  in  favour  of  their  opinion.  It  is  chiefly  for 
cases  where  they  are  clearly  misled  by  errour,  ambition 
or  interest,  that  the  constitution  has  placed  a  check  in 
the  negative  of  the  President." 

The  opinions  thus  expressed,  Mr.  Jefferson,  ever 
after,  invariably  maintained.  In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Gal- 
latin,  dated  December  13,  1803,  he  thus  expresses  his 
fears  of  the  overpowering  influence  of  this  monopoly  : 
"  This  institution  is  one  of  the  most  deadly  hostility 
existing  against  the  principles  and  form  of  our  constitu- 
tion. The  nation  is,  at  this  time,  so  strong  and  united  in 
its  sentiments,  that  it  cannot  be  shaken  at  this  moment. 
But  suppose  a  series  of  untoward  events  should  occur, 
sufficient  to  bring  into  doubt  the  competency  of  a  re- 
publican government  to  meet  a  crisis  of  great  danger, 
or  to  unhinge  the  confidence  of  the  people  in  the  publick 
functionaries ;  an  institution  like  this,  penetrating  by 
its  branches  every  part  of  the  Union,  acting  by  com- 
mand and  in  phalanx,  may,  in  a  critical  moment,  upset 
the  government.  I  deem  no  government  safe  which  is 
under  the  vassalage  of  any  self-constituted  authorities, 
or  any  other  authority  than  that  of  the  nation,  or  its 
regular  functionaries.  What  an  obstruction  could  nol 


206  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

this  bank  of  the  United  States,  with  all  its  branch 
banks,  be  in  time  of  war?  It  might  dictate  to  us  the 
peace  we  should  accept,  or  withdraw  its  aids.  Ought 
we  then  to  give  further  growth  to  an  institution  so 
powerful,  so  hostile  ?  That  it  is  so  hostile  we  know, 
first,  from  a  knowledge  of  the  principles  of  the  persons 
composing  the  body  of  the  directors  in  every  bank, 
principal  or  branch;  and  those  of  most  of  the  stock- 
holders ;  second,  from  their  opposition  to  the  measures 
and  principles  of  the  government,  and  to  the  election 
of  those  friendly  to  them :  and,  third,  from  the  senti- 
ments of  the  newspapers  they  support.  Now,  while 
we  are  strong,  it  is  the  greatest  duty  we  o\ve  to  the 
safety 'of  our  constitution,  to  bring  this  powerful  enemy 
to  a  perfect  subordination  under  its  authorities.  The 
first  measure  would  be  to  reduce  them  to  an  equal  foot- 
ing only  with  other  banks,  as  to  the  favours  of  the 
government.  But  in  order  to  be  able  to  meet  a  general 
combination  of  the  banks  against  us  in  a  critical  emer- 
gency, coul(J  we  not  make  a  beginning  towards  an  in- 
dependent use  of  our  own  money,  towards  holding  our 
own  bank  in  all  the  deposites  where  it  is  received,  and 
letting  the  Treasurer  give  his  draft  or  note  for  payment 
at  any  particular  place,  which,  in  a  well  conducted 
government,  ought  to  have  as  much  credit  as  any  pri- 
vate draft,  or  bank  note,  or  bill,  and  would  give  us  the 
$ame  facilities  which  we  derive  from  the  banks?  I 
pray  you  to  turn  this  subject  in  your  mind,  and  to  give 
it  the  benefit  of  your  knowledge  of  details  ;  whereas  I 
have  only  very  general  views  of  the  subject." 

The  views  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  (Mr. 
Hamilton}  were  equally  decided  in  favour  of  the  estab- 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  207 

lishment.  The  President,  after  receiving  their  opinions, 
weighing  their  reasons,  and  examining  the  subject, 
deliberately  made  up  his  mind  in  favour  of  the  consti- 
tutionality of  the  law,  and  gave  it  the  sanction  of  his 
name.  This  question,  for  many  years  afterwards,  agi- 
tated the  publick  mind,  and  divided  the  national  coun- 
cils; yet  the  Subsequent  establishment  of  a  national 
bank,  with  a  capital  of  thirty-five  millions,  with  the 
approbation  and  consent  of  those  heretofore  opposed  to 
it  on  constitutional  grounds,  must  rescue  the  names  of 
the  authors  of  the  first  bank  from  the  reproach  then 
cast  upon  them  for  a  violation  of  the  constitution.  Yet 
none  will  regret  that  it  was  adopted  with  so  much 
hesitation,  and  that  it  led  to  so  serious  a  discussion  of 
the  fundamental  principles  of  our  government. 

In  this  year,  1791,  Mr.  Hammond  arrived  in  the 
United  States  as  minister  from  Great  Britain.  Soon 
after  his  arrival,  a  correspondence  commenced  between 
him  and  Mr.  Jefferson,  as  Secretary  of  State,  on  the 
subjects  in  controversy  between  the  two  countries,  par- 
ticularly concerning  the  inexecution  of  the  treaty  of 
peace  The  British  minister  having  no  authority  to 
conclude  a  commercial  treaty,  the  consideration  of  that 
subject  was  postponed. 

In  answer  to  the  question  put  by  the  American  Sec- 
retary ts  to  the  intentions  of  the  British  government 
in  relation  to  the  non -fulfilment  of  that  article  of  the 
treaty  of  peace  concerning  the  surrender  of  the  western 
posts,  the  British  minister  said,  that  the  execution  of 
this  article  was  suspended,  in  consequence  of  a  breach 
of  the  fourth,  fifth,  and  sixth  articles,  on  the  part  of  tho 
United  States ;  and  that  in  all  their  discussions  and 


208  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

subsequent  arrangements,  these  subjects  could  not  be 
separated.  It  was  agreed  that  each  should  state  the 
particular  acts  done  by  the  other,  supposed  to  be  in 
contravention  of  the  treaty.  Mr.  Jefferson  commenced 
on  the  part  of  the  'American  government,  in  December, 
1791,  by  repeating,  that  the  garrisons  had  not  been 
withdrawn  from  the  western  posts,  according  to  the 
stipulations  in  the  seventh  article  ;  that  British  officers 
had  exercised  jurisdiction  over  the  country  and  inhab- 
itants belonging  to  the  United  States  in  the  vicinity  of 
these  posts:  that  American  citizens 'had  been  excluded 
from  the  navigation  of  the  great  lakes  ;  and  that,  con- 
trary to  the  same  article,  a  great  number  of  negroes, 
the  property  of  the  citizens  of  the  United  States,  had 
been  carried  away  at  the  time  of  the  evacuation  of  the 
^city  of  New  York. 

The  supposed  infractions  on  the  part  of  the  United 
States,  complained  of  by  the  British  minister,  were, 
1.  Impediments  to  the  collection  of  debts  contracted 
before  the  date  of  the  treaty,  by  the  acts  and  proceed- 
ings of  the  several  states.  2.  The  non-restitution  of 
the  estates  of  the  royalists,  confiscated  during  the  war. 
3.  The  prosecution  of  the  royalists,  and  the  confiscation 
of  their  property,  subsequent  to  the  peace. 

A  statement  of  these  infractions  was  made  by  the 
British  minister,  in  March,  1792,  with  a  reference  to 
the  various  acts  of  the  states  on  these  subjects.  In 
May  following,  an  answer  to  this  was  given  by  the 
American  Secretary  showing  that,  with  respect  to 
property  confiscated  by  the  individual  states,  the  fifth 
article  merely  stipulated  that  Congress  should  recom- 
mend, to  the  legislatures  of  the  several  states,  to  provide 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  209 

for  its  restitution.  That  Congress  had  done  all  in  their 
power,  and  all  they  were  bound  by  treaty  to  do,  by 
recommending  a  compliance  on  the  part  of  the  states  ; 
but  that,  it  was  left  with  the  states  themselves  to  com- 
ply or  not,  as  they  might  think  proper,  and  that  this 
was  so  understood  by  the  British  negotiators,  and  by 
the  British  ministry,  at  the  time  the  treaty  was  comple- 
ted. He  stated  that  no  confiscations  had  taken  place 
subsequent  to  the  peace.  He  also  claimed,  that  the 
first  infractions  were  on  the  part  of  the  British  govern- 
ment, by  withholding  the  western  posts,  and  by  the 
transportation  of  negroes ;  and  that  the  delays  and  im- 
pediments which  had  taken  place  in  the  collection  of 
British  debts,  were  justifiable  on  that  account.  With 
respect  to  the  allowance  of  interest  on  the  debts,  during 
the  time  the  two  countries  were  engaged  in  war,  this, 
he  said,  was  a  point  much  litigated  in  the  courts,  and 
in  some  states  were  allowed,  and  in  others  disallowed. 

This  answer  of  the  British  Secretary  was  transmitted 
to  the  British  court  by  Mr.  Hammond;  and  the  new 
state  of  things  which  soon  after  arose  in  Europe,  pre- 
vented a  reply,  or  a  renewal  of  the  negotiations  in 
America. 

The  arrival  of  citizen  Genet  in  this  country  as  min- 
ister from  France — his  contumacious  behaviour  while 
here — his  arming  vessels  in  our  ports,  and  enlisting 
American  citizens  to  cruise  against  nations  with  whom 
the  United  States  were  at  peace  and  in  amity — his 
claiming  a  general  admiralty  jurisdiction,  and  assum- 
ing to  try  the  validity  of  prizes  within,  our  territo- 
ry— his  exercising  other  acts  of  the  highest  sovereign- 
ty within  the  same — his  projecting  a  hostile  expedi- 
19 


£10  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

tion  from  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  against  the 
Floridas,  and  another  against  New  Orleans  and  Lou- 
isiana from  the  state  of  Kentucky— his  insulting  and 
insolent  communication  to  the  President — his  threaten- 
ed appeal  to  the  publick — the  solicitation  for  his  dis- 
missal, and  his  final  recall: — are  facts  too  notorious  for 
detail,  and  belong  rather  to  the  political  history  of  the 
United  States  than  to  this  brief  biography.  Those 
desirous  of  full  and  explicit  information  on  these  inter- 
esting subjects,  can  be  gratified  by  consulting  the 
"American  State  Papers"  published  under  the  inspec- 
tion of  Congress.  Suffice  it  for  us  to  say,  that  in  all 
these  transactions,  Mr.  Jefferson  maintained  the  digni- 
ty of  government  with  firmness  and  discretion;  repel- 
led the  sophistry  of  the  Frenchman  with  success :'  and 
the  language  and  conduct  he  had  used  in  his  inter- 
course wjth  the  American  government,  and  the  un- 
warrantable expressions  in  which  he  had  indulged 
when  speaking  of  the  illustrious  man  at  its  head,  were 
treated  with  indignation  or  contempt.  The  spirit  of 
friendship  for  the  nation  was  carefully  preserved, 
while  the  unauthorized  aggressions  of  its  agent  were 
resisted,  and  his  insinuations  repelled  and  denied. 

It  may  not  be  improper  here  to  add,  that  Mr.  Genet 
being  recalled,  his  place  was  supplied  by  a  successor, 
Mr.  Fauchet,  who  arrived  in  the  United  States  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1794.  -  ; 

The  Brissotine  party  in  France,  which  sent  Mr, 
Genet  to  America,  had  been  supplanted  by  that  of 
Robespierre :  many  of  the  Brissotines  were  sent  to  the 
guillotine;  and  there  can  be  no  doubt,  that  Genet  him- 
self was  doomed  to  the  same  fate.  His  successor  had 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  211 

special  orders  to  send  him  back  to  France,  and  for 
this  purpose  to  use  force,  if  necessary. 

Fauchet,  therefore,  immediately  after  his  arrival, 
finding  that  Mr.  Genet  did  not  intend  to  return,  but 
was  rather  inclined  to  stay  where  he  was,  requested 
liberty  to  arrest  and  send  him  back,  agreeably  to  his  in- 
structions. This  was  .refused  by  the  President.  Still 
desirous  of  effecting  his  objsct,  he  inquired  whether  the 
Executive  would  oppqs?  his  decoying  him  on  board  of 
a  French  vessel,  under  the  pretence  of  honouring  him 
with  an  entertainment,  and  then  sailing  with  him  for 
Fiance.  The  President  not  only  refused  to  wink  at 
this  clandestine  mode  of  proceeding,  but  declared  he 
would  resist  it,  if  necessary,  by.  force.  By  this  up- 
right and  impartial  conduct,  the  president,  no  doubt, 
saved  Mr.  Genet  from  the  guillotine.* 

In  January,  1/94;  Mr.  Jefferson  resigned  the  office 
of  Secretary  of  State,  and  was  succeeded  by  Mr.  Ran- 
dolph. Hz  resigned,  with  an  intention  of  never  again 
resuming  any  publick  office.  "For  as  to  myself,"  says 
he,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Madison,  "the  subject  has  teen 
thoroughly  weighed  and  decided  on,  and  my  retire- 
ment from  office  has  been  meant  from  all  office,  high 
or  low,  without  exception.  My  health  is  entirely  bro- 
ken down  within  the  last  eight  months:  my  age  re- 
quires that. I  should  place  my  affairs  in  a  clear  state; 
these  are  sound  if  taken  care  of,  but  capable  of  con- 
siderable dangers  if  longer  neglected:  and  above  all 
things,  the  delights  I  feel  in  the  society  of  my  family, 
and  in  the  agricultural  pursuits  in  which  I  am  so  ea- 

*  Pitkin's  United  States,  2d  vol.  417. 


£12  LIFE    OF    JfcFFERSOtf. 

gerly  engaged.  The  little  spice  of  ambition  which  I 
had  in  my  younger  days  has  long  since  evaporated, 
and  I  set  still  less  store  by  a  posthumous  than  present 
name.  In  stating  to  you  the  heads  of  reasons  which 
have  produced  my  determination,  I  do  not  mean  an 
opening  for  future  discussion,  or  that  I  may  be  reason- 
ed out  of  it.  The  question  is  for  ever  closed  with  me." 
The  whole  time  of  Mr.  Jefferson  was  now  devoted 
to  the  education  of  his  family,  the  cultivation  of  his 
estate,  the  intercourse  of  friendship,  and  the  pursuit  of 
those  philosophical  studies  which  he  had  so  long  aban- 
doned, but  to  which  he  now  returned  with  revived  ardour. 
In  the  retirement  of  his  closet,  and  amid  such  employ- 
ments, the  biographer  has  but  little  to  relate,  and  detail 
would  be  monotonous  to  the  reader;  yet.  perhaps,  we 
will  be  pardoned  for  introducing  the  remarks  of  two 
distinguished  French  travellers,  who  visited  him  at 
different  times,  and  enjoyed  his  privacy.  "  His  con- 
versation," says  the  Duke  de  Liancourt,  who  visited 
Monticeljo  in  ?94,  "  is  of  the  most  agreeable  kind,  and 
he  possesses  a  stock  of  information  not  inferiour  to  that 
of  any  other  man.  In  Europe  he  would  hold  a  dis- 
tinguished rank  among  men  of  letters,  and  as  such  he 
has  already  appeared  there.  At  present  he  is  employ- 
ed with  activity  in  the  management  of  his  farms  and 
buildings,  and  he  orders,  directs,  and  pursues,  in  the 
minutest  detail,  every  branch  of  business  relating  to 
them.  The  author  of  this  sketch  found  him  in  the 
midst  of  harvest,  from  which  the  scorching  heat  of 
the  sun  does  not  prevent  his  attendance.  His  negroes 
are  nourished,  clothed,  and  treated  as  well  as  white 
servants  could  be,  As  he  cannot  expect  any  assistance 


LIFE    OP   JEFFERSON.  213 

from  the  two  small  neighbouring  towns,  every  article 
is  made  on  his  farm ;  his  negroes  ar^  cabinet  makers, 
carpenters,  masons,  bricklayers,  &c.  The  children  he 
employs  in  a  nail  manufactory,  which  yields  already 
a  considerable  profit.  The  young  and  old  negresses 
spin  for  the  clothing  of  the  rest.  He* animates  them 
by  rewards  and  distinctions:  in  fine,  his  superiour 
mind  directs  the  management  of  his  domestick  con- 
cerns with  the  same  ability,  activity,  and  regularity, 
which  hq  evinced  in  the  conduct  of  publick  affairs,  and 
which  he  is  calculated  to  display  in  every  situation 
of  life/' 

Twelve  years  before  this,  he  had  made  the  same  im- 
pression on  the  Marquis  de  Chastellux,  a  Major  General 
in  the -French  army,  and  who  had  come  to  this  country 
with  Lieutenant  General  Count  Rochambeau.  "  The 
conversation,"  writes  the  Marquis,  "  continued,  and 
brought  us  insensibly  to  the  foot  of  the  mountains.  On 
the  summit  of  one  of  them  we  discovered  the  house  of 
Mr.  Jefferson,  which  stands  preeminent  in  these  retire- 
ments :  it  was  himself  who  built  it,  and  preferred  this 
situation ;  for  although  lie  possessed  considerable  prop- 
erty in  the  neighbourhood,  there  was  nothing  to  pre- 
vent him  from  fixing  his  residence  whereever  he 
thought  proper.  But  it  was  a  debt  nature  owed  to  'a 
philosopher  and  a  man  of  taste,  that  in  his  own  posses- 
sions he  should  find  a  spot  where  he  might  best  study 
and  enjoy  her.  He  calls  his  house  Monticello,  (in 
Italian,  Little  Mountain,)  a  very  modest  title,  for  it  is 
situated  upon  a  very  lofty  one,  but  which  announces 
the  owner's  attachment  to  the  language  of  Italy  ;  and, 
above  all,  to  the  fine  arts,  of  which  that  country  was, 
19* 


LIFE  OF  JEFFERSOJT. 

the  cradle,  and  is  still  the  asylum.  After  ascending  by 
a  tolerably  commodious  road  for  more  than  half  an 
hour,  we  arrived  at  Monticello.  This  house,  of  which 
Mr.  Jefferson  was  the  architect,  and  often  one  of  the 
workmen,  is  rather  elegant,  and  in  the  Italian  taste, 
though  not  without  a  fault :  it  consists  of  one  large 
square  pavilion,  the  entrance  of  which  is  by  two  porti- 
coes ornamented  with  pillars.  The  ground  floor  con- 
sists chiefly  of  a  very  large  lofty  saloon,  which  is  to  be 
decorated  entirely  in  the  antique  style ;  above  it  is  a 
library  of  the  same  form ;  two  small  wings,  \vith  only 
a  ground  floor,  and  attick  story,  are  joined  to  this  pa- 
vilion, and  communicate  with  the  kitchen,  offices,  &c. 
which  will  form  a  kind  of  basement  story,  over  which 
runs  a  terrace.  My  object  in  this  short  description  is 
only  to  show  the  difference  between  this  and  the  other 
houses  of  the  country ;  for  we  may  safely  aver,  that 
Mr.  Jefferson  is  the  first  American  who-  has  courted 
the  fine  arts  to  know  how  he  should  shelter  himself 
from  the  weather.  But  it  is  on  himself  alone  I  ought 
to  bestow  my  time.  Let  me  describe  to  you  a  man, 
not  yet  forty,  tall,  and  with  a  mild  and  pleasing  coun- 
tenance, but  whose  mind  and  understanding  are  ample 
substitutes  for  every  exteriour  grace.  An  American, 
who,  without  ever  having -quitted  his  own  country,  is 
at  once  a  musician,. skilled  in  drawing,  a  geometrician, 
an  astronomer,  a  natural  philosopher,  legislator,  and 
statesman.  A  Senator  of  America,  who  sat  for  two 
years  in  that  famous  Congress  which  brought  about 
the  revolution;  a  Governour  of  Virginia,  who  filled 
this  difficult  station  during  the  invasions  of  Arnold, 
of  Phillips,  and  of  Cornwallis ;  a  philosopher,  in  vol- 


LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON.  215 

tintary  retirement  from  the  world  and  publick  business, 
inasmuch  only  as  he  can  flatter  himself  with  being 
useful  to  mankind.  A  mild  and  amiable  wife,  charm- 
ing children,  of  whose  education  he  himself  takes 
charge,  a  house  to  embellish,  great  provisions  to  im- 
prove, and  the  arts  and  sciences  to  cultivate,  these  are 
what  remain  to  Mr.  Jefferson,  after  having  played  a 
principal  character  on  the  theatre  of  the  new  world, 
and  which  he  preferred  to  the  honourable  commission 
of  Minister  Plenipotentiary  in  Europe.  The  visit 
which  I  made  him  was  not  unexpected,  for  he  had  long 
since  invited  me  to  come  and  pass  a  few  clays  with 
him,  in  the  centre  of  the  mountains  :  notwithstanding 
which,  I  found  his  first  appearance  serious,  nay,  even 
cold ;  but  before  I  had  been  two  hours  with  him,  wo 
were  as  intimate  as  if  we  had  passed  our  whole  lives 
together:  walking,  books,  but  above  all,  a  conversation 
always  varied  and  interesting,  made  four,  days  pass 
away  like  so  many  minutes.  Sometimes  natural  phi- 
losophy, at  others  politicks,  or  the  arts,  were  the  topicks 
of  our  conversation,  for  no  object  had  escaped  Mr. 
Jefferson  ;  and  it  seemed  as  if  from  his  youth  he  had 
placed  his  mind,  as  he  had  done  his  house,  on  an  ele- 
vated situation,  from  which  he  might  contemplate  the 
universe." 

From  this  retirement,  Mr.  Jefferson  writes  to  Mr. 
Giles,  April  27, 1795,  "  I  shalljje  rendered  very  happy 
by  the  visit  you  promise  me.  The  only  thing  wanting 
to  make  me  completely  so,  is  the  more  frequent  society 
of  my  friends.  It  is  the  more  wanting,  as  I  am  become 
the  more  firmly  fixed  to  the  glebe.  If  you  visit  me  as 
a  farmer,  it  must  be  as  a  condisciple,  for  I  am  but  a 


216  LIFE   OF   JEFFERSON. 

: 

learner ;  an  eager  one,  indeed,  but  yet  desperate,  being 
too  old  now  to  learn  a  new  art.  However,  I  am  as 
much  delighted  and  occupied  with  it  as  if  1  was  the 
greatest  adept.  I  shall  talk  with  you  about  it  from 
morning  till  night,  and  put  you  on  very  short  allow- 
ance as  to  political  aliment.  Now  and  then  a  pious 
ejaculation  for  the  French  and  Dutch  republicans,  re- 
turning with  due  despatch  to  clover,N  potatoes,  wheat, 
&c." 

But  the  situation  of  the  country  and  the  desires  of 
many,  warmly  expressed,  did  not  permit  Mr.  Jefferson 
long  to  enjoy  the  pleasures  of  a  private  life;  and  he 
was  drawn  most  reluctantly  from  his  retirement.  Gen- 
eral Washington  had,  for  some  time,  contemplated  a 
retirement  from  office,  and  in  his  farewell  address  to 
the  people  of  the'  United  States,  he  had.  in  the  month 
of  September,  1796,  declined  being  considered  any 
longer  a  candidate  for  it.  The  person  in  whom  alone 
the  voice  of  the  whole  nation  could  be  united,  having 
thus  withdrawn,  the  two  great  parties,  in  which  the 
country  was  then  divided,  respectively  brought  forward 
'their  chiefs.  Mr.  Jefferson  ,was  supported  by  the  one, 
Mr.  Adams  by  the  other.  "  The  first  wish  of  my 
heart,"  says  the  former,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Madison, 
"  was,  that  you  should  have  been  proposed  for  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  government.  On  your  declining 
it,  I  wish  any  body  rathgr  than  myself:  and  there  is 
nothing  that  I  so  anxiously  hope,  as  that  my  name 
may  come  out  either  second  or  third.  These  would 
be  indifferent  to  me ;  as  the  last  would  leave  me  at 
home  the  whole  year,  and  the  other  two  thirds  of  it. 
Jt  eeems  also  possible,  that  the  Representatives  may 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSOX.  217 

be  divided.  This  is  a  difficulty  from  which  the  constitu- 
tion has  provided  no  issue.  It  is  both  my  duty  and  incli- 
nation, therefore,  to  relieve  the  embarrassment,  should 
it  happen;  and  In  that  case,  I  pray  you  and  authorize 
you  fully,  to  solicit  on  my  behalf,  that  Mr.  Adams  may 
be  preferred.  He  has  always  been  my  senior,  from 
the  commencement  of  our  publick  life,  and  the  expres- 
sion of  the  publick  will  being  equal,  this  circumstance 
ought  to  give  him  the  preference.  And  when  so  many 
motives  will  be  operating  to  induce  some  of  the  mem- 
bers to  change  their  vote,  the  addition  of  my  wish 
may  have  some  effect  to  preponderate  the  scale." 

In  February,  the  votes  for  the  first  and  second 
magistrates  of  the  Union  were  opened  and  counted  in 
the  presence  of  both  houses:  and  the  highest  number 
appearing  in  favour  of  Mr.  Adams,  and  the  second  in 
favour  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  the  first  was  declared  to  be 
President,  and  the  second  the  Vice  President  of  the 
United  States  for  four  years,  to  commence  on  the  fourth 
day  of  the  ensuing  March. 

Most  of  the  four  succeeding  years  was  passed  tran- 
quilly by  Mr.  Jefferson,  in  his  favourite  retreat  at  Mon- 
ticello.  During  this  period,  we  find  but  little  notice  of 
him  among  the  publick  records  of  the  day,  and  conse- 
quently not  much  to  communicate  to  the  reader. 

The  following  extract  from  one  of  his  letters  written 
at  this  time,  and  in  which  he  frankly  and  explicitly 
exhibits  his  political  principles,  feelings,  and  attach- 
ments, may  not  be  entirely  uninteresting :  "  I  do,  then, 
with  sincere  zeal,  wish  an  inviolable  preservation  of 
our  present  federal  constitution,  according  to  the  tru» 
sense  in  which  it  was  adopted  by  the  states,  that  in 


218  LIFE    OF   JEFFERSON. 

which  it  was  advocated  by  its  friends,  and  not  that 
which  its  enemies  apprehended,  who,  therefore,  became 
its  enemies :  and  I  am  opposed  to  the  monarchizing  its 
features  by  the  forms  of  its  administration,  with  a 
view  to  conciliate  a  first  transition  to  a  President  and 
Senate  for  life,  and  from  that  to  a  hereditary  tenure  of 
these  offices,  and  thus  to  worm  out  the  elective  princi- 
ple. I  am  for  preserving  to  the  states  the  powers  not 
yielded  by  them  to  the  Union ;  and  to  the  legislature  of 
the  Union  its  constitutional  share  in  the  division  of 
powers ;  and  I  am  not  for  transferring  all  the  powers  of 
the  states  to  the  general  government,  and  all  those  of  that 
government  to  the  Executive  branch.  I  am  for  a  gov- 
ernment rigorously  frugal  and  simple,  applying  all  the 
possible  savings  of  the  publick  revenue  to  the  discharge 
of  the  national  debt;  and  not  for  a  multiplication  of  offi- 
cers and  salaries  merely  to  make  partisans,  and  for  in- 
creasing, by  every  device,  the  publick  debt,  on  the 
principle  of  its  being  a  publick  blessing.  I  am  for  re- 
lying, for  internal  defence,  on  our  militia  solely,  till 
actual  invasion,  and  for  such  a  naval  force  only  as  may 
protect  our  coast  and  harbours  from  such  depredations 
as  we  have  experienced ;  and  not  for  a  standing  army 
in  time  of  peace,  which  may  overawe  the  publick  sen- 
timent; nor  for  a  navy  which,  by  its  own  expense,  and 
the  eternal  wars  into  which  it  will  implicate  us,  will 
grind  us  with  publick  burdens,  and  sink  us  under  them. 
I  am  for  free  commerce  with  all  nations :  political  con- 
nexion with  none ;  and  little  or  no  diplomatick  estab- 
lishment: and  I  am  not  for  linking  ourselves  by  new 
treaties  with  the  quarrels  of  Europe ;  entering  that  field 
of  slaughter  to  preserve  their  balance,  or  joining  in 


LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON,  219 

the  confederacy  of  kings  to  war  against  the  principles 
of  liberty.  I  am  for  freedom  of  religion,  and  against 
all  manoeuvres  to  bring  about  a  legal  ascendency  of 
one  sect  over  another;  for  freedom  of  the  press, 
and  against  all  violations  of  the  constitution  to  silence 
by  force,  and  not  by  reason,,  the  complaints  of  criti- 
cisms, just  or  unjust,  of  our  citizens  against  the  con- 
duct of  their  agents.  And  I  am  for  encouraging  the 
progress  of  science  in  all  its  branches  ;  and  not  for 
raising  a  hue  and  cry  against  the  sacred  name  of  phi- 
losophy ;  for  awing  the  human  mind  by  stories  of  raw- 
head  and  bloody-bones  to  a  distrust  of  its  own  vision, 
and  to  repose  implicitly  on  that  of  others;  to  go  back- 
wards instead  of  forwards  to  look  for  improvement  j 
to  believe  that  government,  religion,  morality,  and  eve- 
ry other  science  were  in  their  highest  perfection  in  the 
ages  of  the  darkest  ignorance,  and  that  nothing  can  ever 
be  devised  more  perfect  than  what  was  established  by 
our  forefathers.  To  these  I  will  add,  that  I  was  a  sin- 
cere well  wisher  to  the  success  of  the  French  revolu- 
tion, and  still  wish  it  may  end  in  the  establishment  of 
a  free  and  well-ordered  republick;  but  I  have  not  been 
insensible  under  the  atrocious  depredations  they  have 
committed  on  our  commerce.  The  first  object  of  my 
heart  is  my  own  country.  In  that  is  embarked  my 
family,  my  fortune,  and  my  own  existence.  I  have 
not  one  farthing  of  interest,  nor  one  fibre  of  attachment 
out  of  it,  nor  a  single  motive  of  preference  of  any  one 
nation  to  another,  but  in  proportion  as  they  are  more 
or  less  friendly  to  us." 

But  a  new  election  was  now  approaching,  and  the 
hopes  and  wishes  of  the  republican  party  were  again 


220 


LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON. 


fixed  upon  Mr.  Jefferson.  At  this  time  party  divisions 
were  drawn  to  a  strong  and  inseparable  line,  and  were 
particularly  distinguished  by  virulence  and  acrimony. 
They  rested,  in  a  great  measure,  upon  points  of  foreign 
policy,  and  on  foreign  predilections  or  aversions.  Mr. 
Adams  had  been  rendered  unpopular  by  his  apparent 
apathy  towards  the  French  revolution,  and  by  the 
charges  repeatedly  made,  that  himself  and  party  were 
favourably  inclined  towards  Great  Britain.  The  ex- 
penditure of  money  under  his  administration,  for  build- 
ing a  navy,  and  for  other  purposes,  was  thought  by 
many  to  have  been  impolitick,  or  useless ;  and  the 
enactment  of  an  alien  law,  by  which  the  President  was 
authorized  to  compel  suspected  foreigners  to  leave  the 
'Country ;  and  of  the  sedition  law,  which  provided  that 
the  authors  and  publishers  of  false  and  malicious  ac- 
cusations against  the  President  and  members  of  Con- 
gress should  be  prosecuted  and  criminally  punished, 
was  loudly  and  vehemently  condemned.  Under  the 
sedition  law,  several  persons,  and  those  of  considerable 
notoriety  on  the  political  arena,  had  already  been  im- 
prisoned. The  sympathies  of  the  people  were  awa- 
kened in  their  behalf,  and  inflammatory  writers  had 
aroused  their  passions  and  incited  their  indignation 
against  those  at  whose  instance  they  were  confined. — 
The  federalists  supported  Mr.  Adams  and  General 
JPinckney ;  the  republicans,  Mr.  Jefferson  and  Colonel 
Burr:  and  both  parties  being  animated  by  the  prospect- 
•of  success,  the  contest  was  maintained  with  uncommon 
'ardour. 

But  a  most  untoward  and  unlooked-for  event  now  oc- 
curred. By  the  constitution,  as  it  existed  at  that  period, 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  221 

each  elector  voted  for  two  men  without  designating 
which  was  to  be  President ;  and  he  who  obtained  the 
greatest  number  of  votes  was  to  be  President,  and  the 
nearest  to  him  Vice  President.  Mr.  Jefferson  and  Col- 
onel Burr  had  an  equal  number  of  votes,  and  the  elec- 
tion, according  to  the  constitution,  was  to  be  decided 
by  the  House  of  Representatives.  Here  it  also  most 
singularly  occurred,  that  the  states  were,  for  a  long 
time,  equally  divided ;  and  hopes  were  expressed  by 
his  friends,  and  fears  reluctantly  admitted  by  his  op- 
ponents, that  Mr.  Burr  would  be  elected  to  the  office  of 
President.  Week  after  week  were  the  people  kept  in 
intense  solicitude,  while  the  contest  was  thus  main- 
tained; again  and  again  the  voting  went  round,  and 
the  result  continued  the  same;  and  every  exertion  was 
made  to  raise  to  the  highest  office  of  the  nation,  a  man 
who  had  not  received  for  that  purpose  a  solitary  vote 
•of  the  people.  The  time  limited  by  the  constitution 
for  the  election  of  a  President  had  nearly  arrived,  and 
there  was  danger  that  government  must  come  to  a 
pause,  or  be  resolved  into  its  original  elements.  At 
length,  after  thirty-five  ineffectual  ballots,  one  of  the 
lepresentatives  of  the  state  of  Maryland  made  publick 
the  contents  of  a  letter  to  himself,  written  by  Mr.  Burr, 
in  which  he  declined  all  pretensions  to  the  Presidency, 
and  authorized  him  to  disclaim,  in  his  name,  any  com- 
petition with  Mr.  Jefferson.  On  this  specifick  decla- 
ration, two  federal  members,  who  represented  the 
elates  which  had  heretofore  voted  blank,  withdrew,  and 
permitted  the  republican  members  from  ih^se  states  to 
become  a  majority.  Consequently,  on  the  thirty-sixth 
20 


222  LIFE   OP   JEFFERSON. 

balloting,  Mr.  Jefferson  was    elected  President,  and 
Colonel  Burr  became,  of  course,  Vice  President. 

On  the  fourth  of  March,  1801,  he  took  the  oath  of 
office  and  was  inaugurated  President  of  the  United 
States.  In  December  ensuing,  he  sent  his  first  message 
to  the  national  legislature.  On  this  occasion,  he  depart- 
ed from  the  practice  which  had  hitherto  prevailed, 
and  instead  of  personally  delivering  a  speech  to  the 
two  houses  of  Congress,  he  transmitted  to  them  a 
written  message,  which  was  first  read  by  the  Senate, 
and  then  sent  to  the  House  of  Representatives.  The 
example  thus  set,  has  since  been  followed  by  every 
successive  Executive.  This  message  increased  the 
reputation  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  and  was  worthy  of  the 
pen  which  drafted  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
It  has  often  been  referred  to  as  containing  the  manual 
of  democracy,  and  the  theoretical  outlines  of  a  free 
government.  We  shall  here  introduce  it,  not  only  as 
a  specimen  of  composition  which  does  honour  to  the 
writer,  but  as  exhibiting  the  liberal  and  patriotick  prin- 
ciples of  the  man. 

FRIENDS  AND  FELLOW  CITIZENS, 

•  Called  upon  to  undertake  the  duties  of  the  first  executive 
office  of  our  country,  I  avail  myself  of  the  presence  of  that 
portion  of  my  fellow  citizens  which  is  here  assembled,  to  ex- 
press my  grateful  thanks  for  the  favour  with  which  they  have 
been  pleased  to  look  towards  me;  to  declare  a  sincere  con- 
sciousness, that  the  task  is  above  my  talents,  and  that  t  ap- 
proach it  with  those  anxious  and  awful  presentiments  which 
the  greatness  of  the  charge,  and  the  weakness  of  my  powers,  so 
justly  inspire.  A  rising  nation,  spread  over  a  wide  and  fruitful 
land — traversing  all  the  seas  with  the  rich  productions  of  their 
industry — engaged  in  commerce  with  nations  who  feel  power 
and  forget  right — advancing  rapidly  to  destinies  beyond  the 
reach  of  mortal  eye — when  I  contemplate  these  transcendent 
objects,  and  see  the  honour,  the  happiness,  and  the  hopes  of 
this  beloved  country,  committed  to  the  issue  and  the  auspices  of 


LIFE  OP  JEFFERSON,  223 

(his  day,  I  shrink  from  the  contemplation,  and  humble  myself 
before  the  magnitude  of  the  undertaking.  Utterly,  indeed, 
should  I  despair,  did  not  the  presence  of  many,  whom  I  here 
see,  remind  me,  that  in  the  other  high  authorities  provided  by 
our  constitution,  I  shall  find  resources  of  wisdom,  of  virtue, 
and  of  zeal,  on  which  to  rely  under  all  difficulties.  To  you, 
then,  gentlemen,  who  are  charged  with  the  sovereign  functions 
of  legislation,  and  to  those  associated  with  you,  I  look  with 
encouragement  for  that  guidance  and  supp'ort  which  may 
enable  us  to  steer  with  safety  the  vessel  in  which  we  are  all 
embarked,  amidst  the  conflicting  elements  of  a  troubled  world. 

During  the  contest  of  opinion  through  which  we  have  past, 
the  animation  of  discussions  and  of  exertions  has  sometimes 
worn  an  aspect  which  might  impose  on  strangers,  unused  to 
think  freely,  and  to  speak  and  to  write  what  they  think ;  but  this 
being  now" decided  by  the  voice  of  the  nation,  announced  ac- 
cording to  the  rules  of  the  constitution,  all  will,  of  course,  ar- 
range themselves  under  the  will  of  the  law,  and  unite  in  com- 
mon efforts  for  the  common  good.  All,  too,  will  bear  in  mind 
this  sacred  principle,  that  though  the  will  of  the  majority  is,  in 
all  cases,  to  prevail,  that  will,  to  be  rightful,  must  be  reasonable — 
that  the  minority  possess  their  equal  rights,  which  equal  laws 
must  protect,  and  to  violate  would  be  oppression.  Let  us  then, 
fellow  citizens,  unite  with  one  heart,  and  one  mind.  Let  us 
restore  to  social  intercourse,  that  harmony  and  affection,  with- 
out which  liberty,  and  even  life  itself,  are  but  dreary  tilings ; 
and  let  us  reflect,  that,  having  banished  from  our  land  that  reli- 
gious intolerance  under  which  mankind  so  long  bled  and  suf- 
fered, we  have  yet  gained  little,  if  we  countenance  a  political 
intolerance,  as  despotick,  as  wicked,  and  capable  of  as  bitter 
and  bloody  persecutions. 

During  the  throes  and  convulsions  of  the  ancient  world— 
during  the  agonizing  spasms  of  infuriated  man,  seeking, 
through  blood  and  slaughter,  his  long  lost  liberty — it  was  not 
wonderful  that  the  agitation  of  the  billows  should  reach  even 
this  distant  and  peaceful  shore — that  this  should  be .  more  felt 
and  feared  by  some,  and  less  by  others — and  should  divide 
opinions  as  to  measures  of  safety.  But  every  difference  of  opin- 
ion is  not  a  difference  of  principle.  We  have  called  by  differ- 
ent names,  brethren  of  the  same  principle.  WE  ARE  ALL  R&- 
POBLICANS  ;  WE  ARE  ALL  FEDERALISTS.  If  there  be  any  among  us 
who  would  wish  to  dissolve  this  Union,  or  to  change  its  repub- 
lican form,  let  them  stand  undisturbed,  as  monuments  of  the 
safety  with  which  errour  of  opinion  may  be  tolerated,  where 
reason  is  left  free  to  combat  it.  I  know,  indeed,  that  some 
honest  men  fear  that  a  republican  government  cannot  be 
strong — that  this  government  is  not  strong  enough.  But  would 
the  honest  patriot,  in  the  full  tide  of  successful  experiment, 
abandon  a  government  which  has  so  far  kept  us  free  and  firm, 
on  the  theoretick  and  visionary  fear,  that  this  government,  the 
world's  best  hope,  may,  by  possibility,  want  energy  to  preserve 


224  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

itself  1  I  trust  not.  I  believe  this,  on  the  contrary,  the  strong^ 
est  government  on  earth :  I  believe  it  the  only  one,  where  every 
man,  at  the  call  of  the  law,  would  fly  to  the  standard  of  the  lawr 
and  would  meet  invasions  of  the  ptiblick  order  as  his  own  per- 
sonal concern.  Sometimes  it  is  said,  that  man  cannot  be  trusted 
with  the  government  of  himself:  can  he  then  be  trusted  with 
the  government  of  others  1  or  have  we  found  angels,  in  the  form, 
of  kings,  to  govern  him  7  Let  histoiy  answer  this  question. 

Let  us,  then,  with  courage  and  confidence,  pursue  our  own 
federal  and  republican  principles — our  attachment  to  union 
and  representative  government.  Kindly  separated,  by  nature 
and  a  wide  ocean,  from  the  exterminating  havock  of  one  quar- 
ter of  the  globe — too  high-inindcd  to  endure  the  degradations  of 
the  others — possessing  a  chosen  country,  with  room  enough  for 
our  descendants  to  the  thousandth  and  thousandth  generation 
— entertaining  a  due  sense  of  our  equal  right  to  the  use  of  our 
own  faculties — to  the  acquisitions  of  our  own  industry — to 
honour  and  confidence  from  our  fellow  citizens  ;  resulting  not 
from  birth,  but  from  our  actions,  and  their  sense  of  them — en- 
lightened by  a  benign  religion,  professed,  indeed,  and  practi- 
sed in  various  forms,  yet  all  of  them  inculcating  honesty,  truth, 
temperance,  gratitude,  and  the  love  of  man — acknowledging 
and  adoring  an  overruling  Providence,  which,  by  all  its  dis- 
pensations, proves  that  it  delights  in  the  happiness  of  man 
here,  and  his  greater  happiness  hereafter — with  all  these  bles- 
sings, what  more  is  necessary  to  make  us  a  happy  and  prosper- 
ous people  ? — Still  one  thing  more,,  fellow  citizens,  a  wise  and 
frugal  government,  which  shall  restrain  men  from  injuring- 
one  another;  shall  leave  them  otherwise  free  to  regulate 
their  own  pursuits  of  industry  and  improvement ;  and  shall 
not  take  from  the  mouth  of  labour  the  bread  it  has  earned. 
This  is  the  sum  of  good  government ;  and  this  is  necessary  to 
close  the  circle  of  our  felicities. 

About  to  enter,  fellow  citizens,  on  the  exercise  of  duties, 
which  comprehend  every  thing  dear  and  valuable  to  you,  it  is 
proper  you  should  understand  what  I  deem  the  essential  prin- 
ciples of  our  government,  and  consequently  those  which  ought 
to  shape  its  administration.  I  will  compress  them  within  the  nar- 
rowest compass  they  will  bear,  stating  the  general  principle, 
but  not  all  its  limitations.  Equal  and  exact  justice  to  all  men 
of  whatever  state  or  persuasion,  religious  or  political — peace, 
commerce,  and  honest  friendship  with  all  nations — entangling 
alliances  with  none — the  support  of  the  state  governments  in 
all  their  rights,  as' the  most  competent  administrations  for  our 
domestick  concerns,  and  the  surest  bulwarks  against  anti-repub- 
lican tendencies — the  preservation  of  the  general  government 
in  its  whole  constitutional  vigour,  as  the  sheet  anchor  of  our 
peace  at  home,  and  safety  abroad — a  jealous  care  of  the  right 
of  election  by  the  people — a  mild  and  safe  corrective  of  abu- 
ses, which  are  lopped  by  the  sword, of  revolution,  where  peace- 
able remedies  are  unprovided — absolute  acquiescence  in  the 


LIFE    OP    JEFFERSON',  235 

decisions  of  the  majority,  the  vital  principle  of  repuhlicks. 
from  which  is  no  appeal  but  to  force,  the  vital  principle  and 
immediate  parent  of  despotism — a  well-disciplined  militia,  our 
best  reliance  in  peace,  and  for  the  first  moments  of  war,  till 
regulars  may  relieve  them— the  supremacy  of  the  civil  over 
the  military  authority — economy  in  the  publick  expense,  that 
labour  may  be  lightly  burdened — the  honest  payment  of  our 
debts,  and  sacred  preservation  of  publick  faith — encourage- 
ment of  agriculture,  and  of  commerce,  as  its  handmaid — the 
diffusion  of  information,  and  arrangement  of  all  abuses  at  the 
bar  of  the  publick  reason— freedom  of  religion— freedom  of 
the  press — and  freedom  ot  person,  under  the  protection  of  the 
habeas  corpus,  and  trials  by  juries  impartially  selected.  These 
principles  form  the  bright  constellation,  which  has  gone  before 
us,  and  guided  our  steps  through  an. age  of  revolution  and  re- 
formation. The  wisdom  of  our  sages,  and  blood  of  our  he- 
roes, have  been  devoted  to  their  attainment.  They  should  be 
the  creed  of  our  political  faith— the  text  of  civick"  instruction 
— the  touchstone  by  which  to  try  the  services  of  those  we  trust ; 
and  should  we  wander  from  them,  in  moments  of  errour  or 
alarm,  let  us  hasten  to.retrace  our  steps,  and  to  regain  the  road 
which  alone  leads  to  peace,  liberty,  and  safety. 

I  repair,  then,  fellow  citizens,  to  the  post  you  have  assigned 
me.  With  qxpsrience  enough,  in  subordinate  offices,  to  have 
seen  the  difficulties  of  this,  the  greatest  of  all,  I  have  learned  to 
expect,  that  it  will  rarely  fall  to  the  lot  of  imperfect  man,  to 
retire  from  this  station  with  the  reputation,  and  the  favour, 
which  bring  him  into  it.  Without  pretensions  to  that  high 
confidence  you  reposed  in  our  first  and  greatest  revolutionary 
character,  whosepreeminent  services  had  entitled  him  to  the  first 
place  in  his  country's  love,  and  destined  for  him  the  fairest  page 
in  the  volume  of  faithful  history,  I  ask  so  much  confidence  only, 
as  may  give  firmness  and  effect  to  the  legal  administration  of 
your  affairs.  I  shall  often  go  wrong,  through  defect  of  judge- 
ment. When  right,  I  shall  often  be  thought  wrong,  by  those 
whose  positions  will  not  command  a  view  of  the  whole  ground. 
I.  ask  your  indulgence  for  my  own  errours,  which  will  never 
be  intentional ;  and  your  support  against  the  errours  of  others, 
who  may  condemn  what  they  would  not,  if  seen  in  all  its  parts. 
The  approbation  implied  by  your  suffrage,  is  a  great  consola- 
tion to  m3  for  the  past ;  and  my  future  solicitude  will  be,  to 
retain  the  good  opinion  of  those  who  have  bestowed  it  in  ad- 
vance, to  conciliate  that  of  others  by  doing  them  all  the  good  in 
my  power,  and  to  be  instrumental  to  the  happiness  and  freedom 
of  all. 

Relying,  then,  on  the  patronage  of  your  good  will,  I  advance 
with  obedience  to  the  work,  ready  to  retire  from  it  whenever 
you  become  sensible  how  much  better  choices  it  is  in  your 
power  to  make.  And  may  that  infinite  power,  which  rules  the 
destinies  of  tha  universe,  lead  our  councils  to  what  is  best,  and 
give  them  a  favourable  issue  for  our  peace  and  prosperity. 

TH:  JEFFERSON, 
20* 


226  LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON, 

It  would  not  be  consistent  with  the  brevity  of  these 
memoirs,  nor  interesting  to  the  reader,  to  enter  into  the 
details  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  administration.  All  the  facts 
are  recent,  and  the  principal  ones  well  known.  Neither, 
perhaps,  would  it  be  proper.  The  transactions  of  his 
administration,  which  excited  so  much  feeling,  have 
not  yet  reached  the  moment  when  they  may  become 
subjects  for  dispassionate  investigation.  They  hare 
not  yet  parted  with  the  heat  which  the  excited  spirit  of 
the  period  gave  them. 

The  greatest  measure  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  first  admin- 
istration was  the  acquisition  of  Louisiana.  He  early 
became  convinced  of  the  absolute  necessity  of  obtain- 
ing this  territory.  "  Whilst  the  prosperity  and  sove- 
reignty of  the  Mississippi  and  its  waters"-1— we  use  his 
own  language—"  secured  an  independent  outlet  for  the 
produce  of  the  western  states,  and  an  uncontrolled  navi- 
gation through  their  whole  course,  free  from  collision 
with  other  powers,  and  the  dangers  to  our  peace  from 
that  source,  the  fertility  of  the  country,  its  climate  and 
extenf,  promise,  in  due  season,  important  aids  to  our 
treasury,  an  ample  provision  for  our  posterity,  and  a 
wide  spread  for  the  blessings  of  freedom  and  equal 
laws.""  This  was  the  most  important  acquisition  ever 
made  by  our  country.  The  territory  acquired  inclu- 
ded all  the  waters  of  the  Missouri  and  Mississippi,  and 
more  than  doubled  the  area  of  the  United  States ;  while 
the  new  part  was  not  inferiour  to  the  old  in  soil,  cli- 
mate, productions,  and  important  communications. — 
And  while  the  Canadas  have  been  haunting  the  Bri- 
tish Parliament  for  seventy  years,  like  a  wrathful 
ghost,  constantly  harassed  with  a  legislation  that  neve* 


LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON.  227 

satisfies  them,  overwhelmed  with  favours  that  do  not 
propitiate,  and  taunted  with  concessions  which  are  as 
grateful  to  a  proud  colony,  as  alms-oread  is  to  a  proud 
man,  Louisiana  has  sprung  up  at  once  into  an  affec- 
tionate, congenial  member  of  the  confederacy.  The 
sum  of  fifteen  millions  of  dollars  was  the  price  paid 
for  this  acquisition ;  and  on  the  twentieth  of  Decem- 
ber, 1803,  it  was  formally  surrendered  to  the  United 
States  by  the  commissioner  of  France. 

The  period  for  a  new  election  was  now  approaching, 
and  so  much  had  Mr.  Jefferson's  popularity  increased 
during  his  administration,  that  he  was  elevated  a  second 
time  to  the  Presidency,  by  a  majority  which  had  risen, 
from  eight  votes  to  one  hundred  and  forty-eight.  The 
venerable  George  Clinton  of  the  state  of  New  York 
was,  at  the  same  time,  chosen  Vice  President;  and 
both,  according  to  custom,  were  sworn  into  office  on 
the  fourth  of  March,  1805. 

Mr.  Jefferson  entered  upon  the  arduous  duties  of  his 
lofty  station,  deeply  impressed  with  the  confidence  re- 
posed in  him  by  his  fellow  citizens ;  and  he  asserted 
his  determination,  as  he  believed  it  to  be  his  duty,  to 
be  guided  solely  by  those  principles  which  had  thus 
been  sanctioned  by  the  unequivocal  approbation  of  his 
country.  "  I  do  not  fear,"  he  said,  "that  any  motives 
of-  interest  may  lead  me  astray  ;  I  am  sensible  of  no 
passion  which  would  seduce  me  knowingly  from  the 
path  of  justice:  but  the  weaknesses  of  human  nature,  and 
the  limits  of  my  own  understanding,  will  produce  er- 
rours  of  judgement,  sometimes  injurious  to  your  inter- 
ests ;  I  shall  need,  therefore,  all  the  indulgence  I  have 
heretofore  experienced — the  want  of  it  will  certainly  not 


228  LIFE    OF   JEFFERSON. 

lessen  with  increasing  years.  I  shall  need,  too,  the 
favour  of  that  Being  in  whose  hands  we  are,  who  led 
our  forefathers,  as  Israel  of  old,  from  their  native  land, 
and  planted  them  in  a  country  flowing  with  all  the 
necessaries  and  comforts  of  life;  who  has  covered  our 
infancy  with  his  providence,  and  our  riper  years  with 
his  wisdom  and  power." 

Almost  immediately  after  the  election  of  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son, the  conduct  of  Colonel  Burr  began  to  attract  the 
rigilant  eye  of  the  chief  magistrate.  This  gentleman, 
notwithstanding  his  former  services,  and  his  undoubted 
talents,  had  subjected  himself  to  merited  obloquy.  He 
had  long  been  discarded  by  the  republicans,  and  a 
duel  with  General  Hamilton,  which  terminated  fatally 
to  ths latter,  had  rendered  him  an  object  of  abhorrence 
to  the  federalists,  and  degraded  him  in  the  eyes  of  the 
Union.  Thus  situated,  soured  by  disappointments, 
and  denied  the  confidence  of  his  fellow  citizens,  he  had 
retired  into  the  western  states,  a  stricken,  and,  as  he 
conceived,  an  injured  man.  In  the  autumn  of  1806, 
his  mysterious  movements  attracted  the  attention  of 
government.  He  had  purchased  and  was  building 
boats  on  the  Ohio,  and  engaging  men  to  descend  that 
river.  His  declared  purpose  was  to  form  a  settlement 
on  the  banks  of  the  Wachita,  in  Louisiana  *  But  the 
character  of  the  man,  the  nature  of  his  preparations, 
and  the  incautious  disclosures  of  his  associates,  led  to 
the  suspicion  that  his  true  object  was  either  to  gain  pos- 
session of  New  Orleans,  and  erect  into  a  separate  gov- 
ernment the  country  watered  by  the  Mississippi  and 
its  branches,  or  to  invade,  from  the  territories  of  the 
United  States,  the  rich  Spanish  province  of  Mexico. 


LIFE    OP    JEFFERSON.  229 

But  whatever  may  have  been  the  ultimate  object  of 
his  plans,  no  sooner  had  Mr.  Jefferson  received  infor- 
mation that  a  number  of  private  individuals  were  com- 
bining together,  arming  and  organizing  themselves 
contrary  to  law,  with  the  avowed  object  of  carrying  on 
some  military  expedition  against  the  territories  of 
Spain,  than  he  took  immediate  measures  to  arrest  and 
bring  to  justice  its  authors  and  abettors.  Colonel  Burr, 
finding  his  scheme  thus  discovered  and  defeated,  and 
hearing,  at  the  same  time,  that  several  persons  suspect- 
ed of  being  his  accomplices  had  been  arrested,  fled  ia 
disguise  from  Natchez,  and  was  apprehended  on  the 
Tombigbee.  Two  indictments  were  found  against  him, 
one  charging  him  with  treason  against  the  United 
States,  the  other  with  preparing  and  commencing  an 
expedition  against  the  dominions  of  Spain.  He  was 
bound  over  to  take  his  trial  on  the  last  charge  alone, 
the  Chief  Justice  thinking  there  was  not  sufficient  evi- 
dence of  an  overt  act  in  the  former.  On  the  17th  of 
August,  1807,  he  was  brought  to  trial  before  Judge 
Marshall,  Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States,  The 
assemblage  of  individuals  was  fully  proved  ;  but  there 
was  not  sufficient  legal  evidence  to  establish  the  pres- 
ence of  Colonel  Burr,  or  the  use  of  any  force  against 
the  authority  of  the  United  States,  and  the  consequence 
was,  an  acquittal  by  the  jury.  The  people,  however, 
believed  him  guilty,  and  in  this  opinion  the  President 
largely  shared. 

The  wars  produced  by  the  French  revolution  still 
continued  to  agitate  and  convulse  the  whole  of  Eu- 
rope. While,  on  the  one  hand,  the  kings  of  the  earth, 
were  repelled  from  the  soil  of  France,  and  forced,  by 


230  LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON. 

the  genius  of  one  man,  to  summon  every  resource,  and 
exert  every  skill,  for  the  preservation  of  their  own  do- 
minions ;  on  the  other,  the  navy  of  England  traversed 
the  ocean  unrestrained,  and  rode  triumphant  on  every 
sea.     In  the  fierce  animosity  of  these  two  great  belli- 
gerents, the  rights  of  the  unoffending  neutral  were  but 
little  respected.     And  few  ships  were  found  on   the 
ocean  except  those  of  the  United  States   and  Great 
Britain.     "  The  latter,"  says  a  clear,  comprehensive, 
»nd  classical  writer,  "having  always  found  it  impossible 
to  man  her  numerous  fleets  by  volunteer  enlistments, 
had  been  accustomed  to  resort  to  impressment,  or  seiz- 
ing by  force  her  subjects,  and  compelling  them  to  serve 
as  sailors  on  board  her  ships  of  war.     Soon  after  the 
peace  of  1783,  she  claimed  a  right  to  search  for  and 
seize  them,   even  on  board  of  neutral  vessels  while 
traversing  the  ocean.    In  the  exercise  of  this  pretended 
right,  citizens  of  the  United  States,  sometimes  by  mis- 
take and  sometimes  by  design,  were  seized,  dragged 
from  their  friends,  transported  to  distant  parts  of  the 
world,  compelled  to  perform  the  degrading  duty  of 
British  sailors,  and  to  fight  with  nations  at  peace  with 
their  own.  Against  this  outrage  upon  personal  liberty, 
and  the   rights   of  American   citizens,   Washington, 
Adams,  and  Jefferson  had  remonstrated  in  vain.    The 
abuse  continued,  and  every  year  added  to  its  enormity, 
until  a  feeling  of  resentment  was  aroused  worthy  the 
best  period  of  the  Roman  republick.     But  not  in  this 
mode  only  were  the  rights  of  the  United  States  invaded 
and  their  interest  sacrificed  on  the  ocean.     The  carry- 
ing trade  afforded  a  harvest  too  rich  and  too  tempting 
|o  British  cupidity  to  be  long  enjoyed  unmolested. 


LIFE    0V   JEFFERION.  231 

American  ships  carrying  to  Europe  the  produce  of 
French  colonies,  were,  in  an  early  stage  of  the  war, 
captured  by  British  cruisers,  and  condemned  by  their 
courts  as  lawful  prize.  Several  European  ports  under 
the  control  of  France  were  declared  by  British  orders 
in  council,  dated  in  May,  1806,  to  be  in  a  state  of  block- 
ade, although  not  invested  with  a  ^British  fleet,  and 
American  vessels  attempting  to  enter  those  ports,  were 
also  captured  and  condemned.  France  and  her  allies 
suffered,  as  well  as  the  United  States,  from  these  trans- 
gressions against  the  laws  of  nations.  And  her  ven- 
geance fell,  not  so  much  upon  the  belligerent  inflicting 
the  injury,  as  upon  the  neutral  enduring  without  re- 
senting and  repelling  it.  By  a  decree  issued  at  Berlin, 
in  November,  1806,  the  French  Emperour  declared 
the  British  islands  in  a  state  of  blockade,  and  of  course 
authorized  the  capture  of  all  neutral  vessels  attempting 
to  trade  with  those  islands.  From  these  measures  of 
both  nations,  the  commerce  of  the  United  States  suffered 
severely,  and  their  merchants  loudly  demanded  redress 
and  protection. 

"  Bonaparte  having  declared  his  purpose  of  enforcing 
with  rigour  the  Berlin  decree,  and  the  British  govern- 
ment having  solemnly  asserted  the  right  of  search  and 
impressment,  and  having  intimated  their  intention  to 
adopt  measures  in  retaliation  of  the  French  decree, 
Mr.  Jefferson  recommended  to  Congress  that  the  sea- 
men, ships  and  merchandise  should  be  detained  in  port 
to  preserve  them  from  the  dangers  which  threatened 
them  on  the  ocean.  A  law  laying  an  indefinite  embargo 
was  in  consequence  enacted.  A  hope  to  coerce  the 
belligerent  powers  to  return  to  the  observance  of  the 


232  LIFE    OP    JEFFERSON. 

laws  of  nations,  by  depriving  them  of  the  benefits  de- 
rived from  the.  trade  of  America,  was  doubtless  a  con- 
curring (and  perhaps  the  strongest)  motive  for  passing1 
the  law." 

This  enactment,  at  the  time  of  its  passage,  was  receiv- 
ed by  many  with  clamour  and  discontent,  and  the  distress 
which  the  people  endured  from  its  operation  was  un- 
mitigated and  severe.  But  the  wisdom  of  the  measure 
was  shortly  manifested,  and  before  a  year  had  expired, 
overtures  were  made  by  the  British  government  which 
indicated  a  disposition  to  recede  from  or  meliorate  their 
tyrannical  edicts.  These  overtures  were  succeeded  by 
negotiations,  which  finally  terminated  in  a  repeal  of 
the  most  objectionable  features  of  the  orders  in  council. 

The  period  had  now  arrived,  when  Mr.  Jefferson 
was  to  enjoy  that  retirement  and  philosophick  ease 
which  he  had  so  long  coveted,  and  to  which  he  was 
so  ardently  attached.  Publick  employment,  and  office, 
had  never  been  his  choice,  and  nothing  but  duty  to  his 
country  had  ever  drawn  him  from  the  retreats  of  Mon- 
ticello.  Believing  that  no  person  should  hold  the 
•office  of  chief  magistrate  longer  than  eight  years,  he 
had  previously  announced  his  intention  that,  when  his 
service  had  completed  the  stipulated  term,  he  should 
retire  to  private  life.  He  had  now  reached  the  age  of 
sixty -five  years,  forty  of  which  had  been  employed  in 
the  arduous  duties  of  publick  life.  No  one  had  served 
the  country  with  more  industry,  zeal,  and  benefit,  and 
no  one  had  sacrificed  more  personal  comfort  for  that 
purpose ;  and  he  now  retired  from  the  "  scene  of  his 
glory,"  before  age  had  dimmed  his  eye,  or  impaired  his 
usefulness.  He  relinquished  his  high  and  honourable 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  233 

station,  carrying  with  him  the  best  wishes  of  all,  and 
knowing  at  the  same  time  that  his  name  was  associated 
with  the  most  interesting  events  in  the  history  of  his 
country,  and  there  was  awarded  to  him  unsullied  fame 
and  distinguished  reputation.  His  parting  language 
to  Congress  was  as  follows  : 

"  Availing  myself  of  this,  the  last  occasion  which 
will  occur  of  addressing  the  two  houses  of  the  legisla- 
ture at  their  meeting,  I  cannot  omit  the  expression  of 
my  sincere  gratitude,  for  the  repeated  proofs  of  confi- 
dence manifested  to  me  by  themselves  and  their  prede- 
cessors, since  my  call  to  the  administration,  and  the 
many  indulgences  experienced  at  their  hands.  The 
same  grateful  acknowledgments  are  due  to  my  fellow 
citizens  generally,  whose  support  has  been  my  great 
encouragement  under  all  embarrassments.  In  the 
transaction  of  their  business,  1  cannot  have  escaped  er- 
rour.  It  is  incident  to  our  imperfect  nature;  But  I 
may  say  with  truth,  my  errours  have  been  of  the  un- 
derstanding, not  of  intention*  and  that  the  advancement 
of  their  rights  and  interests  has  been  the  constant 
motive  of  every  measure.  On  these  considerations,  I 
solicit  their  indulgence.  Looking  forward  with  anxiety 
to  their  future  destinies,  I  trust,  that  in  their  steady 
character,  unshaken  by  difficulties,  in  their  love  of 
liberty,  obedience  to  law,  and  support  of  publick  au- 
thorities, I  see  a  sure  guarantee  of  the  permanence  of 
our  republick  ;  and  retiring  from  the  charge  of  their 
affairs,  I  carry  with  me  the  consolation  of  a  firm  per- 
suasion, that  Heaven  has  in  store  for  our  beloved 
country,  long  ages  to  come  of  prosperity  and  happi- 


21 


234  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 


CHAPTER  T. 

FROM  this  period,  with  the  exception  of  excursions 
which  business  required,  Mr.  Jefferson  passed  the  rest 
of  his  life  altogether  at  Monticello  ;  which  was  a  con- 
tinued scene  of  the  blandest  and  most  liberal  hospital- 
ity. Into  this  retirement  of  his  domestick  life  we  can- 
not penetrate,  unless  through  the  medium  of  his  cor- 
respondence. Of  this,  fortunately,  we  are  left  in  pos- 
session, and  there  is  a  charm  and  interest  thrown  about 
his  letters  written  at  this  time,  which  amply  compensate 
for  their  perusal.  There  is  in  them,  said  a  competent 
judge,  after  their  perusal,  so  much  remembrance  of 
the  labours  and  excitements  of  earlier  days ;  so  much, 
living  over  past  times  in  the  pleasant  and  somewhat 
pensive  garrulity  of  age;  so  much  clinging  after  old 
affections  not  yet  chilled,  and  gathering  again  around 
him  what  had  been  casually  dropped  in  the  bustling 
journey  of  life;  such  ardent  desires  to  retain  the  attach- 
ments which  yet  remained,  to  renew  those  that  had 
been  weakened  by  accident  and  time,  and  to  weave 
more  strongly  in  his  heart  the  affections  which  were 
rapidly  becoming  more  few ;  that  we  have  turned  to 
them  again  and  again,  and  have  entered  fully  into  the 
feeling  with  which  he  contended,  even  to  the  last,  to 
take  up  his  pen  in  affectionate  communion  with  his 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  235 

friends,  though  suffering  severely  from  the  infirmities 
of  age.  "  While  writing-  to  you,"  he  says  to  Mr. 
Adams,  "  I  lose  the  sense  of  these  things  in  the  recol- 
lection of  ancient  times,  when  youth  and  health  made 
happiness  out  of  every  thing.  I  forget  for  a  while  the 
hoary  winter  of  age,  when  we  can  think  of  nothing 
but  how  to  keep  ourselves  warm,  and  how  to  get  rid 
of  our  heavy  hours,  until  the  friendly  hand  of  death 
shall  rid  us  of  all  at  once." 

And  of  this  correspondence,  the  most  interesting 
portion  is  that  which  Mr.  Jefferson,  towards  the  close 
of  his  life,  held  with  Mr.  Adams.  They  had,  says 
another  writer,  been  coadjutors  in  former  days  of  trial 
and  danger.  They  had  laboured  side  by  side  in  the 
same  field.  At  length  the  separation  of  parties  estran- 
ged them  from  each  other.  Each  retired  from  the  helm 
of  state  to  his  farm,  his  family,  and  his  books.  Their 
early  companions  had  almost  all  disappeared  ;  and 
they  left  alone  among  a  new  generation.  The  jealousies 
inseparable  from  their  late  rivalry,  neither  of  them 
wished  any  longer  to  feel  or  acknowledge,  and  what- 
ever remained  gradually  gave  place  to  the  recollec- 
tions of  their  ancient  friendship.  The  infirmity  of 
advanced  age,  which  shows  itself  in  the  forgetfulness 
of  recent  events,  while  those  of  former  days  are  still 
fresh  in  the  mind,  came  in  aid  of  their  good  feelings. 
They  more  readily  forgot  the  recent  estrangement, 
and  more  easily  returned  to  their  former  attachment. 
There  was  only  wanting  something  to  give  occasion 
to  the  renewal  of  their  correspondence.  It  thus  occur-, 
red.  Two  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  neighbours  having,  by 
the  invitation  of  Mr.  Adams,  passed  the  day  with  him 


236  LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON. 

at  Braintree,  he  remarked  upon  the  injustice  done  by 
the  licentiousness  of  the  press  to  Mr.  Jefferson,  adding, 
"  I  always  loved  Jefferson,  and  still  love  him."  Mr. 
Jefferson,  in  relating  this  anecdote,  subjoins,  "  This  is 
enough  for  me.  I  only  needed  this  acknowledgment 
to  revive  towards  him  ail  the  affections  of  the  most 
cordial  moments  of  our  lives."  The  ensuing  remarks 
do  honour  to  his  candour  and  liberality. 

"  Changing  a  single  word  only  in  Dr.  Franklin's 
character  of  him,  I  knew  him  to  be  always  an  honest 
man,  often  a  great  one,  but  sometimes  incorrect  and 
precipitate  in  his  judgements;  and  it  is  known  to  those 
who  have  ever  heard  me  speak  of  Mr.  Adams,  that  I 
have  ever  done  him  justice  myself,  and  defended  him 
when  assailed  by  others,  with  the  single  exception  as 
to  his  political  opinions.  But  with  a  man  possessing 
so  many  other  estimable  qualities,  why  should  we  be 
dissocialized  by  mere  differences  of  opinion  in  poli- 
ticks, in  religion,  in  philosophy,  or  in  any  thing  else. 
His  opinions  are  as  honestly  formed  as  my  own.  Our 
different  views  of  the  same  subject  are  the  result  of 
d  difference  in  our  organization  and  experience.  I 
neVer  withdrew  from  the  society  of  any  man  on  this 
account,  although  many  have  done  it  from  me ;  much 
less  should  I  do  it  from  one  with  whom  I  had  gone 
through  with  hand  and  heart  so  many  trying  scenes. 
I  wish,  therefore,  but  for  an  appropriate  occasion  to  ex- 
press to  Mr.  Adams  my  unchanged  affections  for  him." 

Their  former  friendship  thus  revived,  they  continued 
to  communicate  to  each  other  their  opinions  on  gov- 
ernment, morals,  and  religion.  They  amused  their 
leisure  by  reviewing  the  speculations  of  Pythagoras 


LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON.  237 

and  Plato,  of  Epicurus  and  Cicero,  and  derived  a  new 
pleasure  from  the  studies  of  their  youth,  by  applying 
to  them  the  results  of  their  long  experience.  The 
armour  which,  like  old  soldiers  after  their  dismission 
from  honourable  service,  they  could  no  longer  use,  it 
was  their  pride  to  keep  polished,  and  retain  in  their 
sight.  While  the  busy  world  around  them  was  engaged 
in  the  contentions  of  party,  or  of  business,  they  were 
peacefully  interchanging  their  reminiscences  of  early 
life  ;  inquiring  after  their  surviving  and  departed  com- 
panions; correcting  inaccurate  relations  of  their  own 
history ;  or  comparing  their  reflections  on  the  books 
which  had  become  their  resource  and  solace.  Their 
strongest  and  latest  feelings  were  in  favour  of  the  lib- 
erty of  men  and  of  nations:  and  it  is  a  most  inter- 
esting fact,  that  the  last  words  of  Mr.  Adams  were 
those  of  patriotick  ejaculation,  responsive  to  the  bell 
which  then  rung  in  celebration  of  the  anniversary  of 
our  independence ;  and  the  last  letter  of  Mr.  Jefferson 
was  an  expression  of  a  hopeless  wish  "  to  participate 
with  his  friends  in  the  rejoicings  on  that  day."  The 
same  day  which  had  marked  the  most  honourable 
epoch  of  their  lives,  was  that  in  which  Providence 
gave  them  the  privilege  to  die. 

It  is  from  this  portion  of  his  works,  too,  as  has  been 
observed,  that  we  obtain  the  best  view  of  his  general 
character  and  sentiments,  which  are  poured  out  in  his 
letters  with  full  and  unaffected  freedom  ;  and  it  is  from 
these  that  we  shall  make  such  extracts  as  may  impress 
on  our  readers  more  correctly  and  clearly  his  peculiar 
personal  traits.  His  habits  and  occupations,  after 
his  retirement  from  office  enabled  him  to  arrange 
21* 


238  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

them  with  more  satisfaction  and  regularity,  are  best 
described  in  his  own  words,  which  we  select  from  dif- 
ferent parts  of  his  correspondence. 

"  I  live  so  much  like  other  people,  that  I  might  refer 
to  ordinary  life  as  the  history  of  my  own.  Like  my 
friend  Dr.  Rush,  I  have  lived  temperately,  eating  little 
animal  food,  and  that  not  as  an  aliment  so  much  as  a 
condiment  for  the  vegetables,  which  constitute  my  prin- 
cipal diet.  I  double,  however,  the  doctor's  glass  and 
a  half  of  wine,  and  even  treble  it  with  a  friend ;  but 
halve  its  effects  by  drinking  the  weak  wines  only. — 
The  ardent  wines  I  cannot  drink,  nor  do  I  use  ardent 
spirits  in  any  form.  Malt  liquors  and  cider  are  my 
table  drinks,  and  my  breakfast,  like  that  also  of  my 
friend,  is  of  tea  and  coffee.  I  have  been  blest  with 
organs  of  digestion  which  accept  and  concoct,  without 
ever  murmuring,  whatever  the  palate  chooses  to  con- 
sign to  them,  and  I  have  not  yet  lost  a  tooth  by  age. 
I  was  a  hard  student  until  I  entered  on  the  business  of 
life,  the  duties  of  which  leave  no  idle  time  to  those  dis- 
posed to  fulfil  them;  and  now  retired,  and  at  the  age 
of  seventy-six,  I  am  again  a  hard  student.  Indeed, 
my  fondness  for  reading  and  study  revolts  me  from 
the  drudgery  of  letter  writing:  and  a  stiff  wrist,  the 
consequence  of  an  early  dislocation,  makes  writing 
both  slow  and  painful.  I  am  not  so  regular  in  my 
sleep  as  the  doctor  says  he  was,  devoting  to  it  from 
five  to  eight  hours,  according  as  my  company  or  the 
books  I  am  reading  interests  me ;  and  I  never  go  to 
bed  without  an  hour  or  half  hour's  previous  reading  of 
something  moral,  whereon  to  ruminate  in  the  intervals 
of  sleep.  But  whether  I  retire  to  bed  early  or  late,  I  rise 


LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON.  239 

with  the  sun.  I  use  spectacles  at  night,  but  not  necessari- 
ly in  the  day,  unless  in  reading  small  print.  My  hear- 
ing is  distinct  in  particular  conversation,  but  confused 
when  several  voices  cross  each  other,  which  unfits  me 
for  the  society  of  the  table.  I  have  been  more  fortu- 
nate than  my  friend  in  the  article  of  health.  So  free 
from  catarrhs,  that  I  have  not  had  one  (in  the  breast,  I 
mean)  on  an  average  of  eight  or  ten  years  through 
life,  I  ascribe  this  exemption  partly  to  the  habit  of 
bathing  my  feet  in  cold  water  every  morning,  for  sixty 
years  past.  A  fever  of  more  than  twenty-four  hours  I 
have  not  had  above  two  or  three  times  in  my  life. — 
A  periodical  headache  has  afflicted  me  occasionally, 
once,  perhaps,  in  six  or  eight  years,  for  two  or  three 
weeks  at  a  time,  which  seems  now  to  have  left  me. 
Retired  at  Monticello,  in  the  bosom  of  my  family, 
and  surrounded  by  my  books,  I  enjoy  a  repose  to 
which  I  was  long  a  stranger.  My  mornings  are  de- 
voted to  correspondence.  From  breakfast  to  dinner,  I 
am  in  my  shops,  my  garden,  or  on  horseback  among 
my  farms:  from  dinner  to  dark,  I  give  to  society  and 
recreation  with  my  neighbours  and  friends ;  and  from 
candle  light  to  early  bed  time,  I  read.  My  health  is 
perfect;  and  my  strength  considerably  reinforced  by 
the  activity  of  the  course  I  pursue ;  perhaps  it  is  as 
great  as  usually  falls  to  the  lot  of  one  of  my  age.  I 
talk  of  ploughs  and  harrows,  seeding  and  harvesting, 
with  my  neighbours,  and  of  politicks,  too,  if  they 
choose,  with  as  little  reserve  as  the  rest  of  my  fellow 
citizens,  and  feel  at  length  the  blessing  of  being  free 
to  say  and  do  what  I  please,  without  being  responsible 
for  it  to  any  mortal.  A  part  of  my  occupation,  and  by 


240  LIFE  01  JEFFERSON. 

no  means  the  least  pleasing,  is  the  direction  of  the 
studies  of  such  young  men  as  ask  it.  They  place 
themselves  in  the  neighbouring  village,  and  have  the 
use  of  my  library  and  counsel,  and  make  a  part  of  my 
society.  In  advising  the  course  of  their  reading,  I 
endeavour  to  keep  their  attention  fixed  on  the  main 
objects  of  all  science,  the  freedom  and  happiness  of 
man.  So  that  coming  to  bear  a  share  in  the  councils 
and  -government  of  their  country,  they  will  ever  keep 
in  view  the  sole  objects  of  all  legitimate  government. 
As  to  politicks,  of  which  I  have  taken  final  leave,  I 
think  little  of  them,  and  say  less.  I  have  given  up 
newspapers  in  exchange  for  Tacitus  and  Thucydides, 
for  Newton  and  Euclid,  and  I  find  myself  much  the 
happier.  Sometimes,  indeed,  I  look  back  to  former 
occurrences,  in  remembrance  of  our  old  friends  and 
fellow  labourers  who  have  fallen  before  us.  Of  the 
signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  I  see  now 
living,  not  more  than  half  a  dozen  north  of  the  Poto- 
mack,  and  on  this  side,  myself  alone.  You  (Mr. 
Adams)  and  I  have  been  wonderfully  spared,  and  my- 
self with  remarkable  health,  and  a  considerable  activ- 
ity of  body  and  mind.  I  am  on  horseback  three'  or 
four  hours  of  every  day;  visit  three  or  four  times  a 
year  a  possession  I  have  ninety  miles  distant,  perform- 
ing the  winter  journey  on  horseback.  I  walk  little, 
however;  a  single  mile  being  too  much  for  me;  and 
I  live  in  the  midst  of  my  grandchildren,  one  of  whom 
has  lately  promoted  me  to  be  a  great  grandfather.  I 
have  heard  with  pleasure  that  you  also  retain  good 
health,  and  a  greater  power  of  exercise  in  walking 
than- 1  do.  But  I  would  rather  have  heard  this  from 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  241 

yourself,  and  that,  writing-  a  letter  like  miner  full  of 
egotisms,  and  of  details  of  your  health,  your  habits, 
occupations,  and  enjoyments,  I  should  have  the  pleas- 
ure of  knowing-,  that  in  the.  race  of  life,  you  do  not 
keep,  in  its  physical  decline,  the  same  distance  ahead 
of  me,  which  you  have  done  in  political  honours  and 
achievements.  No  circumstances  have  lessened  the  in- 
terest I  feel  in  these  particulars  respecting  yourself; 
none  have  suspended  for  one  moment  my  sincere  es- 
teem for  you,  and  I  now  salute  you  with  unchanged 
affection  and  respect." 

The  Duke  of  Saxe  Weimar,  who  was  in  this  coun- 
try in  1 825  and  1826,  thus,  at  this  late  period,  describes 
the  appearance  of  the  sage  of  Monticello,  who  had  in- 
vited him  to  dine. 

"Our  long  walk  caused  such  a  delay,  that  we  found 
the  company  at  table  when  we  entered ;  but  Mr.  Jef- 
ferson came  very  kindly  to  meet  us.  forced  us  to  our 
seats,  and  ordered  dinner  to  be  served  up  anew.  He 
was  an  old  man  of  eighty-two  years  of  age,  of  tall  sta- 
ture, plain  appearance,  and  long  white  hair. 

"  In  conversation  he  was  very  lively,  and  his  spirits, 
as  also  his  hearing  and  sight,  seemed  not  to  have  de- 
creased at  all  with  his  advancing  age.  I  found  him  a 
man  who  retained  his  faculties  remarkably  well  in  his 
old  age,  and-  one  would  have  taken  him  for  a  man  of 
sixty." 

The  following  letter  of  Mr.  Jefferson  to  his  young 
relative,  though  long,  is  so  full  of  good  sense  and 
sound  advice,  that  we  cannot  avoid  inserting  it.  It 
was  written  somewhat  before  the  period  to  which  we 
have  now  arrived. 


242  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

"  Your  situation,  thrown  at  such  a  distance  from  us 
and  alone,  cannot  but  give  us  all  great  anxieties  for  you. 
As  much  has  been  secured  for  you  by  your  particular 
position  and  acquaintance  to  which  you  have  been  re- 
commended, as  could  be  done  towards  shielding  you 
from  the  dangers  which  surround  you.  But  thrown  on 
a  wide  world,  among  entire  strangers,  without  a  friend 
or  guardian  to  advise,  so  young,  too,  and  with  so  little 
experience  of  mankind,  your  dangers  are  great,  and 
still  your  safety  must  rest  on  yourself.  A  determina- 
tion never  to  do  what  is  wrong,  prudence,  and  good 
tumour,  will  go  far  towards  securing  to  you  the  esti- 
mation of  the  world.  When  I  recollect,  that  at  fourteen 
years  of  age,  the  whole  care  and  direction  of  myself 
was  thrown  on  myself  entirely,  without  a  relation  or 
friend  qualified  to  advise  or  guide  me,  and  recollect 
the  various  sorts  of  bad  company  with  which  I  asso- 
ciated from  time  to  time,  I  am  astonished  I  did  not  turn 
off  with  some  of  them,  and  become  as  worthless  to 
society  as  they  were.  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  become 
acquainted  very  early  with  some  characters  of  very 
high  standing,  and  to  feel  the  incessant  wish  that  I 
could  ever  become  what  they  were.  Under  temptations 
and  difficulties,  I  would  ask  myself  what  would  Dr. 
Small,  Mr.  Wythe,  Peyton  Randolph  do  in  this  situa- 
tion ?  What  course  in  it  will  ensure  me  their  appro- 
bation ?  I  am  certain  that  this  mode  of  deciding  on 
my  conduct  tended  more  to  its  correctness  than  any 
reasoning  powers  I  possessed.  Knowing  the  even  and 
dignified  line  they  pursued,  I  could  never  doubt  for  a 
moment  which  of  two  courses  would  be  in  character 
for  them.  Whereas,  seeking  the  same  object  through 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  243- 

a  process  of  moral  reasoning,  and  with  the  jaundiced 
eye  of  youth,  I  should  oftea  have  erred.  From  the 
circumstances  of  my  position,  I  was  often  thrown  into 
the  society  of  horse-racers,  card-players,  fox-hunters, 
scientifick  and  professional  men,  and  of  dignified  men ; 
and  many  a  time  have  I  asked  myself,  in  the  enthusi- 
astick  moment  of  the  death  of  a  fox,  the  victory  of  a 
favourite  horse,  the  issue  of  a  question  eloquently  ar- 
gued at  the  bar,  or  in  the  great  council  of  the  nation, 
well,  which  of  these  kinds  of  reputation  should  I  pre- 
fer ?  That  of  a  horse-jockey  ?  a  fox-hunter?  an  orator? 
or  the  honest  advocate  of  my  country's  rights  ?  Be 
assured,  my  dear  Jefferson,  that  these  little  returns- 
into  ourselves,  this  self-catechizing  habit,  is  not  trifling, 
nor  useless,  but  leads  to  the  prudent  selection  and 
steady  pursuit  of  what  is  right. 

"  I  have  mentioned  good  humour  as  one  of  the  pre- 
servatives of  our  peace  and  tranquillity.  It  is  among 
the  most  effectual,  and  its  effect  is  so  well  imitated 
and  aided,  artificially,  by  politeness,  that  this  also  be- 
comes an  acquisition  of  first-rate  value.  In  truth,  polite- 
ness is  artificial  good  humour ;  it  covers  the  natural 
want  of  it,  and  ends  by  rendering  habitual  a  substitute 
nearly  equivalent  to  the  real  virtue.  It  is  the  practice 
of  sacrificing  to  those  whom  we  meet  in  society,  all  the 
little  conveniences  and  preferences  which  will  gratify 
them,  and  deprive  us  of  nothing  worth  a  moment's 
consideration  ;  it  is  the  giving  a  pleasing  and  flattering 
turn  to  our  expressions,  which  will  conciliate  others, 
and  make  them  pleased  with  us  as  well  as  them- 
selves. How  cheap  a  price  for  the  good  will  of  an- 
other! When  this  is  in  return  for  a  rude  thing  said 


244  *  LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON. 

by  another,  it  brings  him  to  his  senses,  it  mortifies  and 
corrects  him  in  the  most  salutary  way,  and  places  him 
at  the  feet  of  your  goodnature,  in  the  eyes  of  the  com- 
pany. But  in  stating  prudential  rules  for  our  govern- 
ment in  society,  I  ftfost  not  omit  the  important  one  of 
never  entering  into  dispute  or  argument  with  another. 
1  never  yet  saw  an  instance  of  one  of  two  disputants 
convincing  the  other  by  argument.  I  have  seen  majiy, 
of  their  getting  warm,  becoming  rude,  and  shooting 
one  another.  Conviction  is  the  effect  of  our  own  dis- 
passionate reasoning,  either  in  solitude,  or  weighing 
within  ourselves,  dispassionately,  what  we  hear  from 
others,  standing  uncommitted  in  argument  ourselves. 
It  was  one  of  the  rules,  which,  above  all  others,  made 
Doctor  Franklin  the  most  amiable  of  men  in  society, 
'never  to  contradict  any  body.'  If  he  was  urged  to 
announce  an  opinion,  he  did  it  rather  by  asking  ques- 
tions, as  if  for  information,  or  by  suggesting  doubts. 
When  I  hear  another  express  an  opinion  which  is  not 
mine,  I  say  to  myself,  he  has  a  right  to  his  opinion,  as 
I  to  mine;  why  should  I  question  it?  His  errour 
does  me  no  injury:  and  shall  I  become  a  Don  Quixote, 
to  bring  all  men  by  force  of  argument  to  one  opinion  ? 
If  a  fact  be  misstated,  it  is  probable  he  is  gratified  by  a 
belief  of  it,  and  I  have  no  right  to  deprive  him  of  the 
gratification.  If  he  \vants  information,  he  will  ask  it, 
and  then  I  will  give  it  in  measured  terms ;  but  if  he 
still  believes  his  own  story,  and  shows  a  desire  to  dis- 
pute the  fact  with  me,  I  hear  him,  and  say  nothing. — 
It  is  his  affair,  not  mine,  if  he  prefers  eirour.  There 
are  two  classes  of  disputants  most  frequently  to  be  met 
with  among  us.  The  first  is  of  young  students,  just 


'XIFE  0*  JEFFEfeSON.  £45 

^ntered  the  threshold  of  science,  with  a  first  view  of  its 
outlines,  not  yet  filled  up  with  the  details  and  modifica 
tions  which  a  further  progress  would  bring  to  their 
knowledge.  The  other  consists  of  the  ill  tempered 
and  rude  men  in  society,  who  have  taken  up  a  passion 
for  politicks.  .(Good  humour  and  politeness  never  in- 
troduce into  mixed  society  a  question  on  which  they 
foresee  there  will  be  a  difference  of  opinion.)  From 
both  of  those  classes  of  disputants,  my  dear  Jefferson, 
keep  aloof,  as  you  would  from  the  infected  subjects 
of  yellow  fever  or  pestilence.  Consider  yourself, 
when  with  them,  as  among  the  patients  of  Bedlam, 
needing  medical  more  than  moral  counsel.  Be  a  lis- 
tener only,  keep  within  yourself,  and  endeavour  to  es- 
tablish with  yourself  the  habit  of  silence,  especially 
on  politicks.  In  the  fevered  state  of  our  country,  no 
good  can  ever  result  from  any  attempt  to  set  one  of 
these  fiery  zealots  to  rights,  either  in  fact  or  principle. 
They  are  determined  as  to  the  facts  they  will  believe, 
and  the  opinions  on  which  they  will  act.  Get  by  them, 
therefore,  as  you  would  by  an  angry  bull :  it  is  not  for  a 
man  of  sense  to  dispute  the  road  with  such  an  animal. 
You  will  be  more  exposed  than  others  to  have  these 
animals  shaking  their  horns  at  you,  because  of  the  re- 
lation in  which  you  stand  with  me.  Full  of  political 
•venom,  and  willing  to  see  me  and  to  hate  me  as  a  chitff 
m  the  antagonist  party,  your  presence  will  be  to  them 
what  the  vomit-grass  is  to  a  sick  dog,  a  nostrum  for 
producing  ejaculation.  Look  upon  them  exactly  with 
that  eye,  and  pity  them  as  objects  to  whom  you  can 
administer  only  occasional  ease.  My  character  is  not 
within  their  '.power.  It  is  in  the  hands  of  my  fellow 


246  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

citizens  at  large,  and  will  be  consigned  to  honour  of 
infamy  by  the  verdict  of  the  republican  mass  of  our 
country,  according  to  what  themselves  will  have  seen, 
not  what  their  enemies  and  mine  shall  have  said." 

The  following  touching  letter  to  a  friend,  was  occa- 
sioned by  the  loss  of  one  of  his  two  children. 

"  My  loss  is  great  indeed.  Others  may  lose  of  their 
abundance,  but  I,  of  my  want,  have  lost  even  the  half 
of  all  that  I  had.  My  evening  prospects  now  hang 
on  the  slender  thread  of  a  single  life.  Perhaps  I  may 
be  destined  to  see  even  this  last  cord  of  parental  affec- 
tion broken.  The  hope  with  which  I  had  looked  for- 
ward to  the  moment,  when,  resigning  publick  cares  to 
younger  hands,  I  was  to  retire  to  that  domestick  com- 
fort from  which  the  last  great  step  is  to  be  taken,  is 
fearfully  blighted.  When  you  and  I  look  back  at  the 
country  over  which  we  have  passed,  what  a  field  of 
slaughter  does  it  exhibit !  Where  are  all  the  friends 
who  entered  it  with  us,  under  all  the  inspiring  ener- 
gies of  health  and  hope?  As  if  pursued  by  the  hav- 
ock  of  war,  they  are  strewed  by  the  way,  some  earli- 
er, some  later,  and  scarce  a  few  stragglers  remain  to 
count  the  numbers  fallen,  and  to  mark  yet  by  their  own 
fall,  the  last  footsteps  of  their  party.  Is  it  a  desirable 
thing  to  bear  up  through  the  heat  of  the  action,  to 
witness  the  death  of  all  our  companions,  and  merely 
be  the  last  victim?  I  doubt  it.  We  have,  however, 
the  traveller's  consolation :  every  step  shortens  the 
distance  we  have  to  go  ;  the  end  of  our  journey  is  in 
sight,  the  bed  wherein  we  are  to  rest,  and  to  rise  in  the 
midst  of  the  friends  we  have  lost.  '  We  sorrow  not, 
,then,  as  others  who  hare  no  hope,'  but  look  forward  to 


tlFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  24T 

the  day  which  'joins  us  to  the. great  majority.'  But 
whatever  is  to  be  our  destiny,  Avisdom,  as  well  as  duty, 
dictates  that  we  should  acquiesce  in  the  will  of  Him 
whose  it  is  to  give  and  take  away,  and  be  contented  in 
the  enjoyment  of  those  who  are  still  permitted  to  be 
with  us.  Of  those  connected  by  blood,  the  number 
does  not  depend  on  us.  But  friends  we  have,  if  we 
have  merited  them.  Those  of  our  earliest  years  stand 
nearest  in  our  affections.  But  in  this,  too,  you  and  I 
have  been  unlucky.  Of  our  college  friends  (and  they 
are  the  dearest)  how  few  have  stood  with  us  in  the  great 
political  questions  which  have  agitated  our  country : 
and  these  were  of  a  nature  to  justify  agitation.  I  did 
not  believe  the  Lilliputian  fetters  of  that  day  strong 
enough  to  have  bound  so  many." 
f  One  of  the  last  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  letters,  was  writ- 
fen  near  the  close  of  his  life.  It  is  addressed  to  a 
young  person  for  whom  he  appears  to  have  had  an  af- 
fectionate regard,  and  is  summed  up  in  these  solemn 
and  impressive  terms: 

"  This  letter  will,  as  to  you,  be  as  one  from  the 
dead.  The  writer  will  be  in  the  grave  before  you  can 
weigh  its  counsels.  Your  affectionate  and  excellent 
father,  has  requested  that  I  would  address  to  you 
something  which  might  possibly  have  a  favourable  in- 
fluence on  the  course  of  life  you  have  to  run,  and  I, 
too,  as  a  namesake,  feel  an  interest  in  that  course. 
Few  words  will  be  necessary  with  good  dispositions 
on  your  part.  Adore  God.  Reverence  and  cherish 
your  parents.  Love  your  neighbour  as  yourself,  and, 
your  country  more  than  yourself.  Be  just.  Be  true. 
Murmur  not  at  the  ways  of  Providence.  So  shall  the 


248-  LIFE    OF   JEFFERSON. 

life  into  which  you  have  entered,  be  the  portal  to  one  of 
eternal  and  ineffable  bliss.  And  if  to  the  dead  it  is 
permitted  to  care  for  the  things  of  this  world,  every 
action  of  yout  life  will  be  under  my  regard.  Farewell.'* 
Shortly  after  Mr.  Jefferson's  return  to  Monticello,  it 
having  been  proposed  to  form  a  college  in  his  neigh- 
bourhood, he  addressed  a  letter  to  the  trustees,  in  which 
he  sketched  a  plan  for  the  establishment  of  a  general 
system  of  education  in  Virginia.  This  appears  to  have 
led  the  way  to  an  act  of  the  legislature  in  the  year 
1818,  by  which  commissioners  were  appointed  with 
authority  to  select  a  site  and  form  a  plan  for  a  univer- 
sity on  a  large  scale.  Of  these  commissioners,  Mr. 
Jefferson  was  unanimously  chosen  the  chairman,  and 
on  the  fourth  day  of  August,  1818,  he  framed  a  report,, 
embracing  the  principles  on  which  it  was  proposed 
the  institution  should  be  formed.  The  situation  select- 
ed for  it  was  at  Charlottesville,  a  town  at  the  foot  of  the: 
mountain  on  which  Mr,  Jefferson  resided.  The  plan 
was  such  as  to  combine  elegance  and  utility,  with  the 
power  of  enlarging  it  to  any  extent  which  its  future 
prosperity  may  require ;  the  instruction  extended  to 
the  various  branches  of  learning  which  a  citizen  will 
require  in  his  intercourse  between  man  and  man,  in 
the  improvement  of  his  morals  and  faculties,  and  in 
the  knowledge  and  exercise  of  his  social  rights.  Such 
an  education,  Mr.  Jefferson  observes,  "  generates  hab- 
its of  application  and  the  love  of  virtue;  and  con- 
trols, by  the  force  of  habit,  any  innate  obliquities  in 
our  moral  organization.  We  should  be  far,  too,  from  dis- 
couraging the  persuasion,  that  man  is  fixed,  by  the  law 
of  his  nature,  at , a  given  point ;  that  his  imnrovemeiUi 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  249 

is  a  chimera,  and  the  hope  delusive  of  rendering  our- 
selves wiser,  happier,  or  better  than    our  forefathers 
were.     We  need  look  back  only  half  a  century,  to 
times  which  many  no\v  living  remember  well,  and  see 
the  wonderful  advances  in  the  sciences  and  arts  which 
have  been  made  within  that  period.     Some  of  these 
have  rendered  the  elements  themselves  subservient  to 
the  purposes  of  man,  have  harnessed  them  to  the  yoke 
of  his  labours,  and  effected  the  great  blessings  of  mod- 
erating his  own,  of  accomplishing  what  was  beyond 
his  feeble  force,  and  of  extending  the  comforts  of  life 
to  a  much  enlarged  circle,  to  those  who  had  before 
known  its  necessaries  only.     That  these  are  not  the 
vain  dreams  of  sanguine  hope,  we  have  before  our 
eyes  real  and  living  examples.     What  but   education 
has  advanced  us  beyond  the  condition  of  our  indige- 
nous neighbours  ?  and  what  chains  them  to  their  pres- 
ent state  of  barbarism  and  wretchedness,  but  a  bigoted 
veneration  for  the   supposed    superlative   wisdom  of 
their  fathers,  and  the  preposterous  idea  that  they  are 
to  look  backward  for  better  things,  and  not  forward, 
longing,  as  it  should  seem,  to  return  to  the  days  of  eat- 
ing acorns  and  roots,  rather  than  indulge  in  the  degen- 
eracies of  civilization?  And  how  much  more  encour- 
aging to  the  achievements  of  science  and  improvement 
is  this,  than  the  desponding  view  that  the  condition  of 
man  cannot  be  meliorated,  that  what  has  been  must 
ever  be,  and  that  to  secure  ourselves  where  we  are, 
we  must  tread,  with   awful  reverence,  in  the  footsteps 
of  our  fathers.     This  doctrine  is  the  genuine  fruit  of 
the  alliance  between  church  and  state,  the  tenants  of 
vrhich,  finding-themselves  but  too  well  in  their  present, 
22* 


250  LIFE    OF    JEFFER30W1. 

position,  oppose  all  advances  which  migkt  unmask 
their  usurpations,  and  monopolies  of  honours,  wealth, 
and  power,  and  fear  every  change,  as  endangering  th* 
comforts  they  now  hold." 

The  report  then  proceeds  to  state  the  various  ar- 
rangements which  should  be  adopted,  for  the  conduct 
of  so  extensive  an  institution  ;  and  concludes  with  a 
statement  of  its  financial  situation.  The  plan  thus? 
proposed  was  adopted  by  the  legislature.  "  Mr.  Jeffer- 
son was  elected  the  rector  of  the  new  institution,  and 
from  that  period  he  devoted  himself  with  unceasing 
ardour  to  carry  it  into  effect.  Nothing,  indeed,  could 
exceed  his  fond  desire  for  its  success.  It  appeared  to 
be  the  object  of  all  his  hopes  and  thoughts  in  the  de- 
clining years  of  his  life.  He  rode  every  morning, 
when  the  weather  would  permit,  to  inspect  its  pro- 
gress. He  prepared  with  his  own  hands  trie  drawings 
and  plans  for  the  workmen.  He  stood  over  them  as 
they  proceeded  with  a  sort  of  parental  care  and  anxie- 
ty; and  when  the  inclemency  of  the  season,  or  the  in- 
firmity of  age,  prevented  his  visits,  a  telescope  was 
placed  on  a  terrace  near  his  house,  by  means  of  which 
he  could  inspect  the  progress  of  the  work.  After  its 
completion,  he  might  often  be  seen  pacing  slowly  along 
the  porticoes  or  cloisters  which  extend  in  front  of  the 
dormitories  of  the  students,  occasionally  conversing 
with  them,  arid  viewing  the  establishment  with  a  natur- 
al and  honourable  pride.  In  the  library  is  carefully  pre- 
served the  catalogue  written  by  himself,  in  which  he 
has  collected  the  names,  best  editions,  and  value  of  all 
works  of  whatever  language  in  literature  and  science, 
mthich  he  thought  necessary  to  form  a  complete  library; 


LIFE    OF   JEFFERSON.  25! 

and  in  examining  it,  one  is  really  less  struck  with  the- 
research  and  various  knowledge  required  for  its  com- 
pilation, than  the  additional  proof  of  that  anxious  care 
which  seemed  to  search  out  all  the  means  of  fostering 
and  improving  the  institution  he  had  formed." 

But  from  these  pleasant  occupations  he  was  roused 
to  the  scenes  of  worldly  suffering  which  now  sur- 
rounded him.  With  thoughtless  generosity,  he  had 
devoted  the  zeal  of  his  youth  and  the  experience  of  his 
maturer  years  to  the  service  of  his  fellow  citizens,  and 
now,  in  his  old  age,  he  found  himself  doomed  to  that 
poverty  which  he  had  no  longer  the  ability  to  repel. 
It  was,  however,  an  honourable  poverty,  incurred 
in  the  performance  of  publick  duties,  or  private  gen- 
erosity, unsullied  by  extravagance  and  unattended  by 
crime.  And  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  how,  in  his  case, 
it  could  have  been  avoided.  For  more  than  fifty  years 
he  had  been  actively  engaged  in  publick  office,  gener- 
ally at  a  distance  from  his  own  estate:  and  though  his 
patrimony  was  originally  large,  it  could  not  but  be 
impaired  by  this  unavoidable  neglect.  In  retiring 
from  the  exalted  station  he  had  enjoyed,  he  did  not  en- 
ter on  a  less  conspicuous  scene;  he  had  become  iden- 
tified with  the  greatness  and  glory  of  his  country,  he 
was  the  object  of  attraction  to  crowds  of  anxious  and 
admiring  guests,  and,  unless  by  coldly  closing  his 
doors,  it  was  impossible  to  limit  the  expenses  he  was 
thus  obliged  to  occur. 

In  this  emergency,  he  applied  to  the  legislature  of 
Virginia,  who,  in  the  spring  of  1826,  partially  relieved 
him  from  his  embarrassment,  by  authorizing  him  to 
dispose  of  his  estates  by  lottery,  in  order  that  a  fair 


252  LIFE  Or   JEFFERSON. 

price  for  them  might  he  obtained.  When  soliciting 
this  permission,  and  after  enumerating  his  many  and' 
important  services,  he  concludes:  "And  what  remu 
neration  do  I  ask?  Money  from  the  treasury  ?  Not  a 
eent.  I  ask  nothing  from  the  earnings  or  labours  of 
my  fellow  citizens.  I  wish  no  man's  comforts  to  be 
abridged  for  the  enlargement  of  mine.  For  the  ser- 
vices rendered  on  all  occasions,  I  have  been  always 
paid  to  my  full  satisfaction.  I  never  wished  a  dollar 
more  than  what  the  law  had  fixed  on.  My  request  is, 
only  to  be  permitted  to  sell  my  own  property  freely  to 
pay  my  own  debts.  To  sell  it,  I  say,  and  not  to  sacri- 
fice it ;  not  to  have  it  gobbled  up  by  speculators  to 
make  fortunes  for  themselves,  leaving  unpaid  those 
who  have  trusted  to  my  good  faith,  and  myself  without 
resource  in  the  last  and  most  helpless  stage  of  life.  If 
permitted  to  sell  it  in  a  way  which  will  bring  me  a  fair 
price,  all  will  be  honourably  and  honestly  paid,  and  a 
competence  left  for  myself,  and  for  those  who  look  to 
me  for  subsistence.  To  sell  it  in  a  way  which  will 
offend  no  moral  principle,  and  expose  none  to  risk  but 
the  willing,  and  those  wishing  to  take  the  chance  of 
gain.  To  give  me,  in  short,  that  permission  which  you 
often  allow  to  others  for  purposes  not  more  moral."  It 
was  on  this  occasion  that  he  produced  his  "  Thoughts 
on  Lotteries;"  in  which  the  arguments  are  at  least 
specious,  if  not  sound;  and  in  which  he  endeavours  to 
show,  with  what  success  we  will  enable  the  reader  to 
judge,  that  the  objections  urged  against  lotteries  equally 
militate'  against  other  speculations  which  have  never 
been  thought  opposed  to  morality  or  propriety.  A, 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSO*.  253 

short  extract  may  not  be  uninteresting,  and  will  prore 
the  still  unsubdued  vigour  of  his  pen  : 

"  It  is  a  common  idea,  that  games  of  chance  are  immoral. 
But  what  is  chance?  Nothing  happens  in  this  world  without 
a  cause.  If  we  know  the  cause,  we  do  not  call  it  chance;  but 
if  we  do  not  know  it,  we  say  it  was  produced  by  chance.  If 
we  see  a  loaded  die  turn  its  lightest  side  up,  we  know  the  cause, 
and  that  it  is  not  an  effect  of  chance ;  but  whatever  side  an 
unloaded  die  turns  up,  nut  knowing  the  cause,  we  say  it  is  the 
effect  of  chance.  Vet  the  morality  of  a  thing  cannot  depend 
on  our  knowledge  or  ignorance  of  its  cause.  Not  knowing 
why  a  particular  side  of  an  unloaded  die  turns  up,  cannot  make 
the  act  of  throwing  it,  or  of  betting  on  it.  immoral.  If  we 
consider  games  of  chance  immoral,  then  every  pursuit  of  hu- 
man industry  is  immoral,  for  there  is  not  a  single  one  that  is 
not  subject  to  chance ;  not  one  wherein  you  do  not  risk  a  loss 
for  the  chance  of  some  gain.  The  navigator,  for  example, 
risks  his  ship  in  the  hope  (if  she  is  not  lost  in  the  voyage)  of 
gaining  an  advantageous  freight.  The  merchant  risks  his 
cargo  to  gain  a  better  price  for  i'.  A  landholder  builds  a  house 
on  the  risk  of  indemnifying  himself  by  a  rent.  The  hunter 
hazards  his  time  and  trouble  in  the  hope  of  killing  game.  In 
all  these  pursuits,  you  stake  some  one  thing  against  another 
which  you  hope  io  win.  But  the  greatest  of  all  gamblers  is 
the  farmer.  He  risks  the  seed  he  puts  into  the  ground,  the 
rent  he  pays  for  the  ground  itself,  the  year's  labour  on  it,  and, 
the  wear  and  tear  of  his  cattle  and  gear,  to  win  a  crop,  which 
the  chances  of  too  much  or  too  little  rain,  and  general  uncer- 
tainties of  weather,  insects,  waste,  &c.  often  make  a  total* 
or  partial  loss.  These,  ihen,  are  games  of  chance.  Yet  so 
far  Irom  being  immoral,  they  are  indispensable  to  the  exist- 
ence of  man,  and  every  one  has  a  natural  right  to  choose  for 
his  pursuit  such  one  of  them  as  he  thinks  most  likely  t'o  furnish 
him  subsistence.  Almost  all  these  pursuits  of  chance  produce 
something  useful  to  society.  But  there  are  some  which  pro- 
duce nothing,  and  endanger  the  well-being  of  the  individuals 
engaged  in  them,  or  of  others  depending  on  them.  Such  are 
games  with  cards,  dice,  billiards,  &c.  And  although  the  pur- 
suit of  them  is  a  matter  of  natural  right,  yet  society,  perceiv- 
ing the  irresistible  bent  of  some  of  its  members  to  pursue  them, 
and  the  ruin  produced  by  them  to  the  families  depending  on 
these  individuals,  consider  it  as  a  case  of  insanity,  quoad  hoc, 
step  in  to  protect  the  family  and  the  parly  himself,  as  in  other 
cases  of  insanity,  infancy,  imbecility,  &c.,  and  suppress  the 
pursuit  altogether,  and  the  natural  right  of  following  it.  There 
are  some  other  games  of  chance,  useful  on  certain  occasions, 
and  injurious  only  when  carried  beyond  their  useful  bounds. 
Such  are  ensurances,  lotteries,  raffles,  &c.  These  they  do  not 
suppress,  but  take  their  regulation  under  their  own  discretion,. 


254  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

The  ensurance  of  ships  on  voyages  is  a  vocation  of  chancer 
yet  useful,  and  the  right  to  exercise  it,  therefore,  is  left  free. 
So  of  houses  against  fire,  doubtful  debts,  the  continuance  of  a 
particular  life,  and  similar  cases.  Money  is  wanting  for  a 
useful  undertaking,  as  a  school,  &c.,  for  which  a  direct  tax 
would  be  disapproved.  It  is  raised,  therefore,  by  a  lottery, 
wherein  the  tax  is  laid  on  the  willing  only,  that  is  to  say,  on 
those  who  can  risk  the  price  of  a  ticket  without  sensible  injury, 
for  the  possibility  of  a  higher  prize.  An  article  of  property, 
insusceptible  of  division  at  all,  or  not  without  great  diminution 
of  its  worth,  is  sometimes  of  so  large  value  as  that  no  purchas- 
er can  be  found  while  the  owner  owes  debts,  has  no  other 
means  of  payment,  and  his  creditors  no  other  chance  of  ob- 
taining it  but  by  its  sale  at  a  full  and  fair  price.  The  lottery 
is  here  a  salutary  instrument  for  disposing  of  it,  where  many 
run  small  risks  for  the  chance  of  obtaining  a  high  prize.  In  this 
way,  the  great  estate  of  the  late  Colonel  Byrd  (in  175G)  was 
made  competent  to  pay  his  debts,  which,  had  the  whole  been 
brought  into  the  market  at  once,  would  have  overdone  the  de- 
mand, would  have  sold  at  half  or  quarter  the  value,  and  sacri- 
ficed the  creditors,  half  or  three  fourths  of  whom  would  have 
lost  their  debts.  This  method  of  selling  was  formerly  very 
much  resoned  to,  until  it  was  thought  to  nourish  too  much  a 
spirit  of  hazard.  The  legislature  were  therefore  induced,  not 
to  suppress  it  altogether,  but  to  take  it  under  their  own  special 
/regulation.  This  they  did,  for  the  first  time,  by  their  act  of 
1769,  c.  17.,  before  which  time,  every  person  exercised  the 
right  freely;  and  since  which  time,  "it  is  made  unlawful  but 
when  approved  and  authorized  by  a  special  act  of  the  legisla- 
ture. 

"  We  have  seen,  then,  that  every  vocation  in  life  is  subject 
to  the  influence  of  chance  ;  that,  so  far  from  being  rendered 
immoral  by  the  admixture  of  that  ingredient,  were  they  aban- 
doned on  'that  account,  man  could  no  longer  subsist ;  that, 
among  them,  every  one  has  a  natural  right  to  choose  that  which 
he  thinks  most  likely  to  give  him  comfortable  subsistence;  but 
that  while  the  greater  number  of  these  pursuits  are  productive 
of  something  which  adds  to  the  necessaries  and  comforts  of 
life,  others  again,  such  as  cards,  dice,  &c.  are  entirely  unpro- 
ductive, doing  good  to  none,  injury  to  many,  yet  so  easy,  and 
so  seducing  in  practice  to  men  of  a  certain  constitution  of  mirrd, 
that  they  cannot  resist  the  temptation,  be  the  consequences  what 
they  may;  that  in  this  case,  as  in  those  of  insanity,  idiocy, 
infancy,  &c.  it  is  the  duty  of  society  to  take  them  under  its 
protection,  even  against  their  own  acts,  and  to  restrain  their 
right  of  choice  of  these  pursuits,  by  suppressing  them,  entirely; 
that  there  are  others,  as  lotteries  particularly,  which  although 
liable  to  chance  also,  are  useful  for  many  purposes,  and  are 
therefore  retained  and  placed  under  the  discretion  of  the  legis- 
lature, to  be  permitted  or  refused  according  to  the  circumstanr 


.    LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON.  255 

-«es  of  every  special  case,  of  which  they  are  to  judge ;  that  be- 
tween the  years  1782  and  1820,  a  space  of  thirty-eight  years 
only,  we  have  observed  seventy  cases,  where  the  permission 
of  them  has  been  found  useful  by  the  legislature,  some  of  which 
are  in  progress  at  this  time.  These  cases  relate  to  the  emolu- 
ment of  the  whole  state,  to  local  benefits  of  education,  of  navi- 
gation, of  roads,  of  counties,  towns,  religious  assemblies,  private v- 
societies,  and  of  individuals  under  particular  circumstances 
which  may  claim  indulgence  or  favour.  The  latter  is  the  case 
now  submitted  to  the  legislature,  and  the  question  is,  whether 
the  individual  soliciting  their  attention,  or  his  situation,  may 
merit  that  degree  of  consideration  which  will  justify  the  legis- 
lature in  permitting  him  to  avail  himself  of  the  mode  of  sellin  j 
by  lottery,  for  the  purpose  of  paying  his  debte." 

But  few  more  incidents  belong  to  the  eventful  life  of 
Mr.  Jefferson.  The  full  vigour  of  his  mind,  indeed,' 
remained  unimpaired  until  a  very  short  period  before 
he  fell  into  the  grave.  The  few  remaining  circum- 
stances attending  the  close  of  his  life,  we  give  in  the 
words  of  the  "  American  Biography,"  a  work  to  which 
we  have  already  acknowledged  our  obligations.  No 
language  more  appropriate  could  be  employed,  and  no 
one  seems  better  qualified  than  this  author  to  portray 
the  final  scene  of  departing  greatness. 

"The  year  1826  being  the  fiftieth  since  the  estab- 
lishment of  our  independence,  it  was  determined  uni- 
versally throughout  the  United  States,  to  celebrate  it  as  a 
jubilee,  with  unusual  rejoicing;  preparations  to  this 
end  were  made  in  every  part  of  the  country  5  and  all 
means  were  taken  to  impart  to  the  celebration  the  dig- 
nity which  was  worthy  of  the  country  and  the  erent. 
The  citizens  of  Washington,  the  metropolis  of  the  na- 
tion, among  other  things  invited  Mr.  Jefferson,  as  one 
of  the  surviving  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, to  unite  with  them  in  their  festivities;  this 
.request  he  was  obliged  to  decline ;  but  the  letter  in 


256  tlFfc    OF   JEFFERSON. 


which  he  signified  his  regret,  is  left  to  us  as  a  monfr 
ment  of  his  expiring  greatness.  On  the  twenty-fourth 
of  June,  when  the  hand  of  death  was  already  upon 
him,  he  expressed  in  this  letter  all  those  characteristic!*: 
sentiments  which  through  life  had  so  strongly  marked 
him  —  the  delight  with  which  he  looked  back  to  the  pe- 
Tiod,  when  his  country  had  made  its  glorious  election 
between  submission  and  the  sword  —  the  joy  he  felt  in 
its  consequent  prosperity  —  the  hope  he  indulged,  that 
the  time  would  yet  come  when  civil  and  religious  free- 
dom should  bless  all  the  world  —  his  ardent  wish,  that  the 
return  of  that  day  should  keep  fresh  in  us  the  recollec- 
tion of  our  rights,  and  increase  our  devotion  to  them, 
and  the  affectionate  remembrance  with  which  he  dwelt 
on  the  kindness  he  had  experienced  from  his  fellow 
citizens.  He  thus  addresses  the  mayor  of  Washing- 
ton : 

*  Respected  sir  —  The  kind  invitation  I  received  from 
you,  on  the  part  of  the  citizens  of  the  city  of  Wash- 
ington, to  be  present  with  them  at  their  celebration  of 
the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  American  independence,  as 
one  of  the  surviving  signers  of  an  instrument,  pregnant 
with  our  own,  and  the  fate  of  the  world,  is  most  flatter- 
ing to  myself,  and  heightened  by  the  honourable  ac- 
companiment proposed  for  the  comfort  of  such  a  jour* 
ney.  It  adds  sensibly  to  the  sufferings  of  sickness,  to 
be  deprived  by  it  of  a  personal  participation  in  the  re- 
joicings of  that  day  ;  but  acquiescence  under  circum- 
stances is  a  duty  not  placed  among  those  we  are  per- 
mitted to  control.  I  should,  indeed,  with  peculiar  de- 
light, have  met  and  exchanged  there,  congratulations, 
persjr.ally,  with  the  small  band,  the  remnant  of  the 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  257 

host  of  worthies  who  joined  with  us,  on  that  day,  in  the 
bold  and  doubtful  election  we  were  to  make  for  our 
country,  between  submission  and  the  sword;  and  to 
have  enjoyed  with  them  the  consolatory  fact,  that  our 
fellow  citizens,  after  half  a  century  of  experience  and 
prosperity,  continue  to  approve  the  choice  we  made. 
May  it  be  to  the  world,  what  I  believe  it  will  be,  (to 
some  parts  sooner,  to  others  later,  but  finally  to  all,) 
the  signal  of  a;  ousing  men  to  burst  the  chains,  under 
which  monkish  ignorance  and  superstition  had  per- 
suaded them  to  bind  themselves,  and  to  assume  the 
blessings  and  security  of  self-government.  The  form 
which  we  have  substituted,  restores  the  free  right  to 
the  unbounded  exercise  of  reason  and  freedom  of  opin- 
ion. All  eyes  are  opened,  or  opening,  to  the  rights  of 
man.  The  general  spread  of  the  lights  of  science, 
has  already  laid  open  to  every  view  the  palpable  truth, 
that  the  mass  of  mankind  has  not  been  born  with  sad- 
dles on  their  backs,  nor  a  favoured  few,  booted  and 
spurred,  ready  to  ride  Ihem  legitimately,  by  the  grace 
of  God.  These  are  grounds  of  hope  for  others ;  for 
ourselves,  let  the  annual  return  of  this  day  for  ever 
refresh  our  recollections  of  these  rights,  and  an  undi- 
minished  devotion  to  them.  I  will  ask  permission 
here,  to  express  the  pleasure  with  which  I  should  have 
met  my  ancient  neighbours  of  the  city  of  Washington 
and  its  vicinities,  with  whom  I  passed  so  many  years 
of  a  pleasing  social  intercourse — an  intercourse  which 
so  much  relieved  the  anxieties  of  the  publick  cares, 
and  left  impressions  so  deeply  engraved  in  my  affec- 
tions, as  never  to  be  forgotten.  With  my  regret  that 
ill  health  forbids  me  the  gratification  of  an  acceptance, 
23 


258  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON. 

be  pleased  to  receive  for  yourself,  and  those  for  whom 
you  write,  the  assurance  of  my  highest  respect  and 
friendly  attachments.' 

"Soon  after  this  letter  was  written,  the  indisposition 
of  Mr.  Jefferson  assumed  a  more  serious  character. 
He  had  been  for  some  time  ill,  though  it  was  not  un- 
til the  twenty-sixth  of  June  that  he  was  obliged  to  con- 
fine himself  to  his  bed.  The  strength  of  his  constitu- 
tion, and  freedom  from  bodily  pain,  for  a  short  time 
encouraged  the  hope  that  his  illness  was  merely  tem- 
porary. He  himself,  however,  felt  the  conviction  that 
his  last  hour  was  approaching.  He  had  already  lived 
beyond  the  limits  ordinarily  assigned  to  human  exist- 
ence, and  for  some  months  past,  the  whole  tone  of  his 
conversation  showed  that  he  was  looking  forward  to 
its  termination,  with  a  calmness  and  equanimity  worthy 
of  his  past  life.  *  I  do  not  wish  to  die,'  he  was  in  the 
habit  of  saying  to  the  intimate  friends  around  him, 
*  but  I  do  not  fear  to  die.  Acquiescence  under  cir- 
cumstances is  a  duty  we  are '  permitted  to  control.3 
He  declared,  that  could  he  but  leave  his  family  un- 
embarrassed, and  see  the  child  of  his  old  age,  the  uni- 
versity, fairly  flourishing,  he  was  ready  to  depart — 
nunc  dimittis  Domine,  the  beautiful  ejaculation  of  the 
Hebrew  prophet,  was  his  favourite  quotation. — May 
God  and  his  country  grant  the  fulfilment  of  his  dying 
wishes.  On  the  second  of  July,  the  complaint  with 
which  he  was  afflicted  left  him ;  but  his  physician  ex- 
pressed his  fears  that  his  strength  might  not  prove  suf- 
ficient to  restore  him  from  the  debility  to  which  it  had 
reduced  him ;  conscious  himself  that  he  could  not  re- 
cover, and  free  from  all  bodily  and  apparently  from  all 


LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON.  259 

mental  pain,  he  calmly  gave  directions  relative  to  his 
coffin  and  his  interment,  which  he  requested  might  be 
at  Monticello,  without  parade  or  pomp ;  he  then  called 
his  family  around  him,  and  conversed  separately  with 
each  of  them ;  to  his  beloved  daughter,  Mrs.  Ran- 
dolph, he  presented  a  small  morocco  case,  which  he 
requested  her  not  to  open  until  after  his  death ;  when 
the  sad  limitation  had  expired,  it  was  found  to  contain 
an  elegant  and  affectionate  strain  of  poetry,  on  the 
virtues  of  her  from  whom  he  was  thus  torn  away. 
On  Monday,  the  following  day,  he  inquired  of  those 
around  him  with  much  solicitude,  what  was  the  day  of 
the  month ;  they  told  him  it  was  the  third  of  July ;  he 
then  eagerly  expressed  his  desire  that  he  might  be  per- 
mitted to  live  yet  a  little  while,  to  breathe  the  air  of  the 
fiftieth  annirersary.  The  wish  was  granted — the  Al- 
mighty hand  sustained  him  up  to  the  very  moment 
when  his  wish  was  complete ;  and  then  bore  him  to 
that  world,  where  the  pure  in  heart  meet  their  God." 
Mr.  Jefferson  expired  at  Monticello,  at  ten  minutes  be- 
fore one  o'clock  on  the  fourth  of  July,  1826;  within 
the  same  hour  at  which,  fifty  years  before,  the  declara- 
tion of  independence  had  been  promulgated.  At  this 
time  he  had  reached  the  age  of  eighty-three  years,  two 
months,  and  twenty-one  days. 

Thus  ripe  in  years,  and  rich  in  fame  and  good  ac- 
tions, departed  this  venerable  father  of  the  republick. 
His  services  commenced  with  the  freedom  and  happi- 
ness of  his  country,  and  terminated  only  at  her  unbound- 
ed' prosperity  and  greatness.  But  his  influence  rests 
not  here,  and  the  name  and  opinions  of  Jefferson  are 
jet  to  be  the  guides  through  many  generations.  His 


260  LIFE  OF  JEFFERSON. 

laurels  were  hardly  earned  and  will  wear  well,  and  as 
long  as  "  truth  is  left  free  to  combat  errour,"  must 
remain  untarnished  and  unsullied. 

The  reader  may  form  and  justly  appreciate  the 
publick  character  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  from  the  memoirs 
which  he  has  perused.  In  that  character  will,  we 
think,  be  distinguished,  independence  of  mind,  firmness 
and  frankness  of  conduct,  undaunted  resolution,  and 
indefatigable  perseverance.  And  all  these,  aided  by 
an  intellect  no  less  powerful  than  acute,  no  less  com- 
prehensive in  its  grasp  than  minute  in  its  discernment. 
But  perhaps  the  most  distinguishing  trait  in  his  publick 
character,  was  firm  and  undeviating  consistency.  He 
was  swayed  by  the  purity  of  democracy  throughout.  He 
has  stood  before  two  generations  ;  and  the  same  politi- 
cal doctrines  which  he  first  espoused,  he  advocated 
with  persevering  consistency  unto  the  end.  Forming 
his  judgements  after  the  best  reflections  that  he  could 
bestow,  and  after  the  fullest  information  he  could  col- 
lect, he  ever  after  adhered  to  them.  This  may  some- 
times have  been  the  cause  of  errour,  but  it  was  also 
the  foundation  of  that  political  and  moral  firmness 
which  may  be  traced  from  the  very  first  moment  of 
his  entering  upon  life,  until  its  close. 

It  has  been  well  observed,  that  Mr.  Jefferson's  mind 
partook  of  the  character  which  he  wished  to  commu- 
nicate to  society.  His  speculations  all  manifest  a  feel- 
ing of  independence,  which  allowed  no  authority  to 
restrain  him  in  the  indulgence  of  his  thoughts.  It  is 
remarkable  that  he  never  quotes  the  opinion  of  any 
other  as  the  foundation  or  motive  of  his  own.  In 
whatever  respect  he  held  the  reputation  of  the  great 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  261 

or  learned,  he  did  not  pay  them  the  deference  of  re- 
ceiving their  belief  or  their  doctrines  without  investi- 
gation ;  for  there  are  few  fancies  so  extravagant  in 
morals  or  philosophy,  as  not  to  have  received,  at  some 
period  or  other,  the  countenance  of  great  names,  and 
to  have  been  allowed  by  their  sanction  to  pass  current 
in  society. 

As  we  have  already  seen,  the  principal  attempt  in 
which  his  philanthropick  efforts  were  unsuccessful,  was 
the  gradual  emancipation  of  slaves,  and  the  immedi- 
ate inhibition  of  the  traffick ;  and  it  will  also  be  per- 
ceived that,  in  his  draft  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde-  » 
pendence,  one  of  the  grievances,  charged  upon  the 
abjured  sovereign,  was  the  constant  negative  which  he 
put  upon  all  laws  passed  in  the  colonies  for  the  abo- 
lition of  the  slave  trade.  His  advocacy  of  the  cause 
of  slaves  is  a  proof,  if  any  were  wanting,  that  his 
motive  for  reform  was  not  the  desire  of  popularity, 
and  that  he  was  not  disposed  to  flatter  publick  opinion 
in  order  to  obtain  its  support.  On  the  contrary,  he 
dared  to  attack  it  in  a  point  where  it  was  the  most 
sensitive  and  intractable.  In  espousing  the  cause 
of  the  slaves,  he  excited  for  the  most  part  the  jealousy 
of  their  masters.  He  could  have  no  motive  but  the 
honour  of  his  country  and  the  impulse  of  humanity. 

"  Mr.  Jefferson  resembled  Dr.  Franklin  in  the  char- 
acter of  his  mind,  and  in  his  fortunes.  Neither  of 
them  had  a  predilection  for  political  concerns.  The 
studies  most  congenial  to  their  minds  were  the  specu- 
lations of  philosophy,  the  discoveries  of  science,  and 
the  pursuits  of  natural  history.  They  each  ^  had  a 
fondness  for  the  mechanick  arts.  Engaged  in  similar 
23* 


262  LIFE  OF  JEFFERSOJT, 

objects,  they  enjoyed  abroad  the  same  scientific!*:  cor- 
respondence, and  arrived  at  the  same  classical  hon- 
ours; and  the  traveller  sees  with  pride  their  names 
associated  and  inscribed  on  the  contributions  which 
America  has  made  to  the  learned  cabinets  of  Europe. 

"  Dr.  Franklin,  also,  is  more  known  as  a  writer 
than  an  orator.  Some  of  his  speeches  are  reported. 
Though  they  are  distinguished  by  the  peculiar  and 
extraordinary  features  of  his  mind,  and  were  always 
delivered  with  effect,  yet  it  is  remarked,  that  he  never 
spoke  longer  than  ten  minutes.  Mr.  Jefferson  too, 
wanting  strength  of  voice,  relied  altogether  up'on  his 
power  of  writing;  and  as  nature  is  observed  to  com- 
pensate the  loss  of  one  sense  by  giving  more  force  to 
another,  so  Mr.  Jefferson's  disuse  of  public k  speaking 
seems  to  have  thrown  additional  energies  in  his  writ- 
ten composition." 

Mr.  Jefferson  was  the  acknowledged  head  of  the 
republican  party,  from  the  period  of  its  organization 
down  to  that  of  his  retirement  from  publick  life.  The 
unbounded  praise  and  blame  which  he  received  as  a 
politician,  must  be  left  for  the  judgemept  of  the  histo- 
rian and  posterity. 

In  person,  Mr.  Jefferson  was  tall,  erect,  and  well 
formed,  though  thin ;  his  countenance  was  bland  and 
expressive  ;  his  conversation  fluent,  imaginative,  vari- 
ous, and  eloquent.  Few  men  equalled  him  in  the  fac- 
ulty of  pleasing  in  persona]  intercourse  and  acquiring 
ascendency  in  political  connexion.  'His  complexion 
was  fair,  and  his  features  remarkably  expressive ;  his 
forehead  broad,  the  nose  not  larger  than  the  common 
size,  and  the  whole  face  square,  and  expressive  of  deep 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  265 

thinking".  In  his  conversation  he  was  cheerful  and  en- 
thusiastick  ;  and  his  language  was  singularly  correct 
and  vivacious.  His  manners  were  simple  and  unaf- 
fected, mingled,  however,  with  much  native  but  unob- 
trusive dignity. 

In  disposition,  Mr.  Jefferson  was  full  of  liberality 
and  benevolence.  His  charity  was  unostentatious,  but 
bountiful ;  a  certain  portion  of  his  revenue  was  regu- 
larly applied  to  maintain  and  extend  it ;  and  it  has  been 
remarked,  that  those  who,  since  his  death,  have  travel- 
led in  that  part  of  Virginia  where  he  resided,  could  not 
fail  to  be  struck  with  the  repeated,  the  grateful,  and 
the  unpremeditated  tributes  which  are  every  where 
paid  to  his  memory — the  constant  appeal  to  his  opin- 
ions, the  careful  remembrance  and  relation  of  every 
anecdote  affecting  his  person  and  his  actions.  In  his 
family  he  was  hospitable  to  a  degree  which  caused 
poverty  to  throw  some  dark  shadows  over  the  evening 
of  his  life ;  he  was  kind  to  his  domesticks,  by  whom  it 
was  remarked,  that  no  instance  had  ever  occurred  in 
which  he  had  lost  his  temper ;  he  was  warmly  attached 
and  devoted  to  his  children  and  relatives,  whom  he 
loved  to  assemble  around  him;  and  we  have  seen  how 
bitterly  he  felt  the  blow  which  deprived  him  of  one  of 
his  two  children — a.  calamity  which  seems  to  have 
shaken  his  affectionate  nature  to  its  centre.  The  sim- 
plicity of  the  domestick  habits  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  have 
been  already  discovered  in  our  extracts  from  his  cor- 
respondence. 

The  correspondence  of  Mr.  Jefferson  was  varied 
and  extensive,  to  a  degree  that  became  extremely  irk- 
some in  his  latter  years.  On  this  subject,  in  the  year 


264  LIFE    OF   JEFFERSON. 

1822,  he  thus  expressed  himself  to  Mr.  Adams :  "  I 
do  not  know  how  far  you  may  suffer,  as  I  do,  under 
the  persecution  of  letters,  of  which  every  mail  brings 
a  fresh  load.  They  are  letters  of  inquiry,  for  the  most 
part,  always  of  good  will,  sometimes  from  friends 
whom  I  esteem,  but  much  oftener  from  persons  whose 
names  are  unknown  to  me,  but  written  kindly  and 
civilly,  and  to  which,  therefore,  eivility  requires  an- 
swers. I  happened  to  turn  to  my  letter  list  some  time 
ago,  and  a  curiosity  was  excited  to  count  those  received 
in  a  single  year.  I  found  the  number  to  be  one  thou- 
sand two  hundred  and^sixty-seven,  many  of  them  re- 
quiri  ig  answers  of  elaborate  research,  arid  all  to  be 
answered  with  due  attention  and  consideration." 

A  few  words  respecting  the  religious  opinions  of 
Mr.  Jefferson,  and  we  close  the  volume.  He  has  been 
represented  as  it  suited  party  rancour  :  at  one  time,  as 
the  atheistical  desperado,  warring  against  the  God  of 
heaven;  at  another,  as  the  ribald  scoffer,  throwing 
malignant  sneers  upon  the  declarations  of  His  word. 
But  he  was  far,  very  far,  from  being  either  of  these. 
However  opposed  Mr.  Jefferson  may  have  been  to 
what  he  considered  the  corruptions  or  abuses  of  Chris- 
tianity, yet  to  the  spirit  and  precepts  of  the  gospel  he 
was  strongly  attached ;  and  of  the  character  of  our 
Saviour  he  was  a  warm  and  professed  admirer.  His 
correspondence  is  full  of  declarations  to  this  effect,  and 
they  are  given  as  the  frank  and  undisguised  sentiments 
of  his  heart.  In  a  letter  to  his  friend,  Dr.  Rush,  he 
thus  gives  him  his  views  of  the  Christian  religion : 
"  They  are,"  says  he,  "  the  result  of  a  life  of  inquiry  and 
reflection,  and  very  different  from  that  anti-Christian^ 


LIFE  OP  JEFFERSON.  265 

system  imputed  to  me  by  those  who  know  nothing  of 
my  opinions.  To  the  corruptions  of  Christianity,  I 
am,  indeed,  opposed ;  but  not  to  the  genuine  precepts 
of  Jesus  himself.  I  am  a  Christian  in  the  only  sense 
in  which  he  wished  any  one  to  be ;  sincerely  attached 
to  his  doctrines  in  preference  of  all  others ;  ascribing 
to  himself  every  human  excellence  ;  and  believing  he 
never  claimed  any  other."  Accompanying  this  letter 
was  a  syllabus  of  an  estimate  of  the  merit  of  the  doc- 
trines of  Jesus,  in  which,  among  other  reasons,  he  as- 
signs the  following  for  the  intrinsick  superiority  of 
the  divine  lawgiver : 

"  1.  He  corrected  the  Deism  of  the  Jews,  confirming 
them  in  the  belief  of  one  only  God,  and  giving  them 
juster  notions  of  his  attributes  and  government. 

"2.  His  moral  doctrines,  relating  to  kindred  and 
friends,  were  more  pure  and  perfect  than  those  of  the 
most  correct  of  the  philosophers,  and  greatly  more  so 
than  those  of  the  Jews ;  and  they  went  far  beyond  both 
in  inculcating  universal  philanthropy,  not  only  to  kin- 
dred and  friends,  to  neighbours  and  countrymen,  but 
to  all  mankind,  gathering  all  into  one  family,  under 
the  bonds  of  love,  charity,  peace,  common  wants,  and 
common  aids.  A  developement  of  this  head  will 
evince  the  peculiar  superiority  of  the  system  of  Jesus 
over  all  others. 

"  3.  The  precepts  of  philosophy,  and  of  the  Hebrew 
code,  laid  hold  of  actions  only.  He  pushed  his  scruti- 
nies into  the  heart  of  man  ;  erected  his  tribunal  in  the 
region  of  his  thoughts,  and  purified  the  waters  at  the 
fountain  head. 

"  4.  He  taught,  emphatically,  the  doctrine  of  a  future 


266  LIFE    OF    JEFFERSOJT. 

state,  which  was  either  doubted  or  disbelieved  by  the 
Jews  ;  and  wielding  it  with  efficacy,  as  an  important 
incentive,  supplementary  to  the  other  motives  to  moral 
conduct." 

In  a  letter  to  John  Adams  are  these  words  :  "  If  by 
religion  we  are  to  understand  sectarian  dogmas,  in 
which  no  two  of  them  agree,  then  your  exclamation  on 
that  hypothesis  is  just,  '  that  this  would  be  the  best  of 
all  possible  worlds,  if  there  were  no  religion  in  it.' — 
But  if  the  moral  precepts  innate  in  man,  and  made  a 
part  of  his  physical  constitution,  as  necessary  for  a 
social  being — if  the  sublime  doctrines  of  philanthropism 
and  Deism  taught  us  by  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  in  which 
all  agree,  constitute  true  religion,  then,  without  it,  this 
would  be,  as  you  again  say,  '  something  not  fit  to  be 
named,  even  indeed,  a  hell.'- " 

In  another  letter  to  Dr.  Waterhouse,  he  thus  express- 
es himself:  "  The  doctrines  of  Jesus  are  simple,  and 
tend  all  to  the  happiness  of  man. 

"  1.  That  there  is  one  only  God,  and  he  all  perfect. 

"  2.  That  there  is  a  future  state  of  rewards  and  pun- 
ishments. 

"  3.  That  to  love  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  thy 
neighbour  as  thyself,  is  the  sum  of  religion." 

Certainly  all  this  is  not  the  language  of  an  enemy 
to  Christianity.  It  would  be  a  forced  service  to  en- 
rol under  the  banners  of  atheism  him  who  has  ex- 
pressed such  an  unhesitating  reliance  on  the  controlling 
energies  of  a  superintending  Providence;  and  one 
would  suppose  the  man  who  declares  that  '  this  earth 
would  be  a  hell  without  the  religion  of  Jesus,'  would 


LIFE    OF    JEFFERSON.  267 

be  more  apt  to  share  with  the  Bible  in  the  hatred  of  the 
scoffer,  than  be  considered  his  coadjutor  in  profanity. 

But  though  Mr.  Jefferson's  opinion  on  certain  religious 
points  should  be  hostile  to  our  own,  how  is  he  more 
culpable  than  the  thousands  who  have  embraced  differ- 
ent forms  of  belief?  In  what  respect  do  his  religious 
tenets  differ  from  those  of  his  venerable  predecessor, 
or  from  those  of  his  equally  celebrated  son  ?  In  dis- 
senting from  the  opinion  of  others,  whose  piety  and 
wisdom  are  entitled  to  veneration,  he  has  not  underta- 
ken to  advance  his  own  with  pride  or  bitterness.  He 
has  not  condescended  to  disguise  his  sentiments  for 
fear  of  provoking  opposition,  nor  has  he  been  ambi- 
tious to  obtrude  them  on  the  publick  in  the  conceit  of 
making  converts. 

His  death  tested  the  sincerity  of  his  faith,  and  he 
died  with  that  calmness,  serenity,  and  full  reliance  on 
the  mercy  of  his  Maker,  which  both  philosophy  and 
religion  desire. 


THE  END. 


, 


